Friday, October 29, 2010

Operatic Floral Tribute

A couple of months ago, I participated in the world premiere performance of pianist, performer and music educator Geoffrey Lancaster's new version of Henry Purcell's opera, "Dido & Aeneas". The original prologue to the opera had been lost over the centuries, so this version was a lovingly restored version by Lancaster himself, using choruses and dances from other works of Purcell's, changing words where necessary to fit the original dialogue. I was lucky enough to be asked to play not only Venus, Goddess of Love, in the new Prologue (in which I got to wear THE MOST AMAZING COSTUME EVER - see pics), but also the role of "Second Woman" in the opera itself, which Lancaster slightly adapted to take on more of a sisterly role to Dido and Belinda (ie. sharing the aria "Pursue thy Conquest, Love" as a duet with Belinda).




I thoroughly enjoyed the challenging and often gruelling rehearsal process, and used Joe as a sounding board many times for any personal and professional issues that I faced throughout it. It was the first major production that I had done outside of my home state of Tasmania, away from the friends and family that I normally rely upon for sanity.

True to form, Joe not only stuck by me during my stressed out and occasionally grumpy moods (occasionally? Well...), but SENT ME FLOWERS, too. An enormous, cheery bunch! My housemate had just been in hospital, so the house was full of flowers; when I saw this bunch waiting outside the front door, I was all, "Oh, Laura has another bunch of flowers, cool." Picked 'em up, looked at the tag, and YAY! They were for ME! :)






Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I haven't sent Joe any flowers (I'm not sure that he'd truly appreciate a big bunch of flowers delivered to his front door...), but the gifts I have sent have been a little creative in nature, and hopefully are infused with as much thoughtfulness as Joe's flowers! Perhaps Joe will tell you about some of them. :-)


 Venus!

3 comments:

  1. I've seen girls in Bedminster, Bristol walk around in outfits just like that. You'd fit in well around here....
    You two are just too cute *jealous*

    I have never been sent flowers ever in my life :o(

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  2. That's one serious outfit!

    Flowers! Awww flowers. How they make a person feel better :). Joe, you're one sweet boy!

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  3. Aww, Ann, I'm sorry to hear that you've never been sent flowers. They truly are a special gift to receive. So bright and beautiful and joyous!

    Lizzie: A very serious outfit indeed! Did I rock it or what? (Or not. LOL.) Joe is a very sweet man!

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