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Cosi fan tutte ( Glyndebourne) & opera v musicals

Last night I saw Cosi fan tutte at Glyndebourne. It was the third cooperation between Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. It might be termed opera buffa (comic opera) as it’s light-hearted, even silly, and unlikely to resonate with a modern audience. The story is of two soldier [...]

August 11, 2021 // 0 Comments

My sporting weekend

It’s weekends like these that justify my £10 betting cap. Sunday was grey, windy and wet. A perfect day then for tv sport except we were denied by the weather an exciting finale to the Test and it was the finale too of the Olympics. The Racing Post felt that Fulham, whilst a better side than [...]

August 9, 2021 // 0 Comments

A cornucopia of tv sport

As I tucked into my Weetabix with The Times sport supplement I anticipated a wonderful array of sport on the television: the Olympics, the England v India Test, the Lions Test, the US PGA at St Jude and, although I was not disappointed, I feel obliged in true Rust tradition to criticise the [...]

August 8, 2021 // 0 Comments

Oh – so that was it, was it?

For my sins – to be honest, it felt as much a duty as an imperative – I duly watched the live Sky Sports TV coverage of the Third Test between the Springboks and the British & Irish Lions in Capetown yesterday (kick-off 5.00pm UK time) which ended in a 19-16 victory, and thereby an [...]

August 8, 2021 // 0 Comments

Fings ain’t what they used ter be …

There are those among the contributors to this organ – and probably also its readers – who are familiar with – and/or are even habitual visitors to – the Talking Pictures television channel whose particular raison d’etre is to broadcast popular British and other television [...]

August 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

Write around the world/BBC4

I was attracted to this programme presented by actor Richard E Grant for several reasons. Firstly, I had seen his programme on the art of The French Riviera and enjoyed it. Secondly I knew the Analfi coast which he was visiting well. Thirdly most of the books he was discussing set in that region I [...]

August 4, 2021 // 0 Comments

Olympic coverage

Like my colleagues on the Rust I find the back drop of empty seats in the stadiums a distinct turn off. In the week of track and field I miss the winning athlete draped in the national flag going over to supporters. I am also less than impressed by the BBC coverage. The BBC has so few sporting [...]

August 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Inspired by the excellent Ken Burns documentary of Ernest Hemingway I decided to read one of his works. For Whom the Bell tolls I read at school and found it heavy going. Farewell to Arms I knew the story from the film. I’m not a reader of short stories so I plumped for the audio version of The [...]

July 30, 2021 // 0 Comments

Countdown to surrender/PBS

It’s an interesting issue as to why and how capably the German army fought in the latter stages of World War Two when there was little chance of successful resistance. The answer was supplied in this excellent documentary. The most telling reason was Adolf Hitler himself who not only thought [...]

July 29, 2021 // 0 Comments

Borsalino (1970)

My Alain Delon season continued with the only film in which  he is paired with the other French  box office star of the sixties and seventies Jean Paul Belmondo. They play two up and coming gangsters in 1930s Marseilles. Even though they generate a certain chemistry on screen, off screen there [...]

July 26, 2021 // 0 Comments

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