Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Leery
Yesterday we paid our first visit to Hampton Court of the year, prompted by tales of daffodils flowering at the Esher Common roundabout, underneath the A3. We also had the evidence of daffodils old and new pushing up in our own garden, although, as yet, some way off flowering.
It turned out that Hampton Court was rather crowded, winter fun still funning strong, and we were reduced to taking a chance by parking in the coach park at the railway station across the river. The car park was full, the coach park contained no coaches but did contain quite a lot of cars and so we hoped that our blue badge was sufficient protection against the signs about fines and tow away. As indeed proved to be the case, although by the time we returned, one of South West Trains' old retainers was reading aforesaid mentioned sign with great care. He may have been contemplating executive action, although it was hard to see him organising the lorries needed to tow away the number of cars involved that late - say 1530 - on a Bank Holiday afternoon.
It also turned out that the bulbs at Hampton Court were barely showing. In the odd sheltered spot there was the odd snowdrop or brave crocus and in the odd bed there were a few points showing through. Even the odd daffodil bud. But that was about it; they had not even seen fit to erect the 'keep of the grass' signs which grace that part of the gardens once the bulbs get going properly. We shall try again in a few weeks time.
Back home to a viewing of my Christmas copy of Kozintsev's rendering of King Lear, of 1970 vintage. Very good it was too. Spare but strong score from Shostakovitch, the last film score that he wrote. Terrific Lear & fool. Suitably demure and decorative Cordelia. Large scale scenic effects with lots of extras, all rather Mother Russia flavoured and deployed to good, if unusual, effect. Or perhaps they were Estonians. All in all, very moving; a truly universal play. The only downer was that the subtitles, many of them bits from the original play and some of them presumably reverse translations from the Pasternak, were played very quickly, too quickly for the brain to readily latch on to, but that will not be a problem on a second viewing, particularly if we arm ourselves with the Wikipedia plot summary to help keep track of who is in love with who. Or perhaps it should be whom; getting a bit vague these days on the trickier points of our language.
It turned out that Hampton Court was rather crowded, winter fun still funning strong, and we were reduced to taking a chance by parking in the coach park at the railway station across the river. The car park was full, the coach park contained no coaches but did contain quite a lot of cars and so we hoped that our blue badge was sufficient protection against the signs about fines and tow away. As indeed proved to be the case, although by the time we returned, one of South West Trains' old retainers was reading aforesaid mentioned sign with great care. He may have been contemplating executive action, although it was hard to see him organising the lorries needed to tow away the number of cars involved that late - say 1530 - on a Bank Holiday afternoon.
It also turned out that the bulbs at Hampton Court were barely showing. In the odd sheltered spot there was the odd snowdrop or brave crocus and in the odd bed there were a few points showing through. Even the odd daffodil bud. But that was about it; they had not even seen fit to erect the 'keep of the grass' signs which grace that part of the gardens once the bulbs get going properly. We shall try again in a few weeks time.
Back home to a viewing of my Christmas copy of Kozintsev's rendering of King Lear, of 1970 vintage. Very good it was too. Spare but strong score from Shostakovitch, the last film score that he wrote. Terrific Lear & fool. Suitably demure and decorative Cordelia. Large scale scenic effects with lots of extras, all rather Mother Russia flavoured and deployed to good, if unusual, effect. Or perhaps they were Estonians. All in all, very moving; a truly universal play. The only downer was that the subtitles, many of them bits from the original play and some of them presumably reverse translations from the Pasternak, were played very quickly, too quickly for the brain to readily latch on to, but that will not be a problem on a second viewing, particularly if we arm ourselves with the Wikipedia plot summary to help keep track of who is in love with who. Or perhaps it should be whom; getting a bit vague these days on the trickier points of our language.
# posted by Jim @ 12:21 AM 
