April 24, 2013

Buying tickets online for London. Got the very last ticket, in the last row of the balcony, for an evening called “Handel in Italy” at Wigmore Hall.

Watched Tout les matins de la monde on DVD. Beautiful. I tried before, but didn’t have the patience. Depardieu is a bit of a joke here, but watching him shows why the French adore him. The film gave me strange, Renaissance dreams. There were long processions. We dressed in white and wore heavy black beads. I was at the front, and the person who was at the back of the line was going to be executed when we reached the destination.. There was no visible distinction between us, and I worried about that. In another we (a different group, including people I know) stripped down to our underwear and marched up the central aisle in a stone church, and sat down in a semi-circle in front, with out backs to the congregation. One of us got to wear a red robe over our underwear; I was glad it was me. I think we were meant to prophesy or receive the power of God–or perhaps deflect the power of God.

Also watched David and Bathsheba with Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward, a very much subtler and less frivolous film than one expected.

Desperate for a day off– I mean off, no rehearsals, no semi- voluntary attendance at a student function, no stolen hour that kills the whole of the day.