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Sleight of hand: The Fabulist @charingcrossthr

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Billed as a musical comedy, The Fabulist is actually a rare chance to see Giovanni Paisiello’s rarely performed light opera, The Imaginary Astrologers , translated and updated to Mussolini’s Italy. With sublime music, fine singing and a bit of additional silliness thrown in for good measure, it’s a welcome addition to the choices available on the West End. It’s currently playing at Charing Cross Theatre . In this update, the action moved to Italy in 1929. A magician (or, as he prefers to be called, Fabulist), Julian is on the run from both the fascists and the Catholic Church. On the run, he stumbles on a film shoot and dazzles the screenwriter Clarice with his charm while her sister tries to complete a series of mildly subversive historical films. What will win in a battle of ideas between science and magic, the church and the Fabulist? It’s an evening of light operatic comedy, so there are no prizes for guessing.  Experts in clerical fascism and fascist mysticism may find some of the
News: Light up

London Landmarks are to be lit up tonight for Olympic bid. They should commence in a few minutes and are expected to woo the 2012 Olympic Bidders, who yesterday traveled two stops on the Jubilee Line to see how well that would work should London get the games...

London Weather

It hovered somewhere in between 1deg and 8 deg today, but there is a chance of snow over the next few days... Whatever happens, it will be a bit of a brisk weekend to start moving things... But it looks like that will be the case..

Another Jerry Springer Moment

Going to see Jerry Springer: The Opera tonight. It closes tomorrow night before going on a national tour... It will be a chance to again savour opera with such lyrics as:

I don't give a f*ck no more
If people think I am a whore...

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