Blog

Donizetti does Tudors

A real treat from the Met this week. They are streaming one opera per night free and this week has 3 Donizetti operas.

Last night was Anne Boleyn with Anna Netrebko superb in the title role. a shame if anyone missed it.

Tonight (Wed April 29) it’s Mary Stuart with Joyce DiDonato playing Mary.

Tomorrow it’s Roberto Devereux starring Sondra Radvanovsky and Elīna Garanča. I’m told it’s worth watching for Sondra Radvanovsky’s acting alone and Elīna Garanča is always very easy on the eye. They are both excellent voices too.

Check out these free operas at
https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

Cultural things to do during the coronavirus lockdown

Opera from the Met

I’ve just learnt that the New York Metropolitan opera are providing free streamings of some of their great opera broadcasts from the last 14 years.

Further details here

https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/coronavirus-the-metropolitan-opera-to-stream-free-operas.html

The stream will be free and will present encores of The Met’s acclaimed Live in HD series. The performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be available to stream for 20 hours. The first week’s schedule, outlined below, will be featuring timeless classics as Carmen, La Bohème, and La Traviata.

Virtual museum tours

Here is a link to information about some of the world’s great museums which are offering virtual tours via the web. I’ve not looked at any of these yet but the list is impressive.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

GINs Snowshoes Givrine to La Cure 3 March 2020

A compact team guided by Mark Warren and driven by Richard headed up to Givrine with an arc route to La Cure. Rob, Mark Watts, Steve, Paul, David S and Drew gave sundry excuses. This turned out to be a truly exhilarating day out. Fantastic deep powder snow conditions and bright sun gave us a real treat as we entered the forest into the oblivion. The trees were more loaded than Schilligers in November, and many small branches were bent over the virgin trail waiting to dump us with powder. About 180m up to a barn and then down the long trail to a fondu at Chez Mamac, La Cure. 7 km but enough. Super day and company. Also attending Philip and Peter T. Thanks to Richard for taking the train back to fetch the car while the rest of us drank beers and vin chaud by a warm stove.

We start out into the deep stuff
Descent to the forest
Richard scouts out the route
Philip and Mark follow us in
Better than Schilligers
Richard takes a powder shower
Follow the pink ribbons
About to destroy virgin powder
Mark is amazed
Long trail to La Cure, now ski tracked
It’s tough but somebody has to do these things

Racket on Mt Rond 20 Feb 2020

A motley crew of 6, missing Drew excused with a cold, ascended from a crowded carpark at Col de la Faucille into the quiet and peaceful snowy forest in perfect weather and then on up to Mt Rond for fantastic views in 360°. Fresh snow powder added to the fun, especially on the steeper descent. Lunch later in Refuge de Florimont was as good as it gets. Even a whisky flask was employed to round us off. Attending – Mark Warren (leader – merci Mark), Rob Pashley (he got all the whiskey), Richard Saynor, Philip Jenkins, Steve Long and Peter Taylor. Not 499 m but memorable, great fun and company.

Approaching the main event
Better than Schilligers
Jura Magic – with prints
Longer legs in front
Summit party, Steve, Richard, Peter, Rob, Mark, Philip
Skiing on raquettes
Refuge de Florimont. Great views, value and food and wine. Excellent service too

Snow Shoeing Racket 6 Feb 2020

A fine day out from over and beyond Marchairuz organised by Rob and attended by Richard, Mark and Philip. Fine sun, good fresh snow and the following are quotes from attendees (I bailed out with a touch of the Coronavirus (cold)).

“The trail was 8.8 kms but only half of our normal 499 metres ascent!”

Quotes from Richard (above) and Mark.

“You are right it was lovely weather and a great snowshoe – 8.8km and 256m height difference.The valley from Marchairuz towards the Givrine was a first for most of us. It’s less frequented than coming from the other side. The snowshoe tracks were marked with polls but we were the first on most of it since the last snowfall.
Next date planned is 18 February; I hope you are available  to join us.”

GINs Lunch – Tannay 5 Feb 2020

Rudi Pluss organised a fine lunch at the Auberge du Lion d’Or in Tannay. Really fine set menu of salad, pork and then dessert. The sun shone and the wine flowed. It was good also to have a short mingle before we sat down to eat. Waiter Roch took some good (selfie) photos for us and appreciated our name badges, even giving himself one. 24 Attended including, Rudi, Bryan, Paul, Dave, Alan, Brian, Thatcher, Trevor D, Trevor G, Tim, John, Richard, David C, Steve, Tony, Reinier, Wouter, Terence, Mike, Ian, Simon, Peter and possibly others late on the list. Merci to Rudi.

SKI TEAM Villars

This was a really super day. With Maestro Mervyn on other slopes and Mark packing his bags for the USA, David led our smaller team of Thatcher, Steve and myself around the ski areas of Villars and Diablerets. The day dawned bright, sunny and cold, with a front coming in later in the day, so we started out early. For Steve it was a return to Villars ski area after a 20 year gap, odd given he is oft seen in Morgins over the valley. New snow the previous day meant for wonderful conditions. Coffee and lunch stops were welcome as we toured around the nicely empty pistes. One faller – me once – others skied in fine style. A great day out. Thanks to David – especially for hosting Thatcher and me the night before.

BBC Programme on Quantum Entanglement

There was a very interesting programme on BBC 4 last Thursday, 16/01/2020, 22:00 about quantum entanglement. I had recorded it and just got round to watching it. I wanted to let you know in case anyone else with Swisscom TV wants to watch it before it’s a week old.

What I like about the program is that it gives the history, starting with the 1927 Solway conference and onto Einstein’s paper and the work of John Bell. It does not try to describe any of the mathematics but rather gives one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen of the physical phenomenon and what they are currently doing to verify it.

I already sent this as a note to members of the GIN Kulture group since I definitely believe this qualifies under our definition of Culture. Since there was reasonable interest I’m adding it to the blog.

Brian Allardyce refers us to an article by the Austrian Academy of Sciences at oeaw.ac.at in case you missed the programme. This describes what they did.
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/detail/news/quantum-entanglement-confirmed-with-light-from-distant-quasars/

I also found an interesting YouTube video which goes a step backwards and explores the origins of Quantum Mechanics and spends some time on the endless arguments between Bohr and Einstein at the 1927 conference. These are referred to in the BBC programme but only related to entanglement whereas the disagreement was much more fundamental.

Here is the link
https://ch.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=solvay+conference#id=19&vid=e36e4a2e5c40902eb79a7761d344a8b9&action=view

Top