Glyndebourne

We arrived back from Glyndebourne and a flying visit to The Alpaca Stud yesterday teatime. We had a fantastic time and saw Hansel und Gretel one night and Carmen the second. I haven’t been to Glyndebourne since the new Opera House was finished and it is one of the very few that I have been to that is actually comfortable and has air conditioning. We were in the front row of the circle and no one whispered or ate sweets anywhere near us – fantastic.

Gretel had a fabulous voice, the music was very lush and we thought the conductor and orchestra excellent. Chas loved the lighting and the sets – the house was a huge cardboard box whilst the witch’s Gingerbread house was like an enormous display of sweets in a supermarket. The forest was made up of bare poles with loads of discarded plastic bags everywhere – very 21st century. We had thought about going to one of the restaurants there but were put off by the price. Instead we stopped off at Waitrose in Salisbury to stock up – a wise decision as their food was lovely.

We were late setting off and had a load of stud males in the trailer to be dropped off en route. We met Karen Oglesby and she took Centurion and then met Nick Harrington Smith further on and he took the whole trailer. Then we hurried to Colin and Linda’s house in Lewes where we were staying. They have downsized now that Adam and Henry are off making their creative way in the world and have bought a sweet little three storey cottage in the centre of the town. We slept in the roof on a blow up bed. It did my back no end of good, totally pain free after a night there. We had to climb up a ladder which I found slightly unnerving but it was firmly attached so not too bad. And Linda cooked us breakfast, such service!

It rained during the long interval at the first opera so we climbed into the car and sat surverying the serried rows of chauffeurs while we drank champagne and ate our picnic. House champagne at Glyndebourne is nearly £9 a glass. I spent a lot of time in the interval gazing at some amazing frocks and various chaps all done up in kilts or those Highland trews.

Day two was spent wandering around Lewes, scene of a great battle and home of Thomas Paine. It has some excellent shopping and lots of good places for lunch – we were forced to ty one of them. Then back to Glyndebourne for Carmen where the leading lady was fittingly sexy with an excellent bosom. She had a gorgeous mezzo/contralto voice where the low notes were very bright. It all looked ravishing, I know it very well so as those fantastic tunes kept on coming, I was on a high.

This time it was a beautiful evening so we walked round the gardens admiring the plants, some excellent banana trees, will mine get that big?