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Belters and bohemians: Opera Locos @Sadlers_wells

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At the start of the Opera Locos performance, the announcement says that they really are singing. You could be forgiven for wondering that, given the amplification turns up the backing track and the voices so loud that you can't always tell what's real. But this is a mostly harmless and slightly eccentric blend of opera classics fused with the occasional pop classic. However, recognising the pop tunes would help if you were over a certain age. The most recent of them dates back twenty years. It's currently playing at the Peacock Theatre .  Five performers play out a variety of archetype opera characters. There's the worn-out tenor (Jesús Álvarez), the macho baritone (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos), the eccentric counter-tenor (Michaël Kone), the dreamy soprano (María Rey-Joly) and the wild mezzo-soprano (Mayca Teba). Since my singing days, I haven't recognised these types of performers. However, once, I recall a conductor saying he wanted no mezzo-sopranos singing with the s

News: Torch relay torture

Despite the snow, Londoners give the Beijing Olympics Torch relay the welcome it deserves...

Overheard on the High Street Tuesday

Lady #1 (to woman on a mobile phone blocking a doorway): Excuse me... Oh that's a lahvely ring Lady #2: Oh thank you dahling... Thank you... Lady #1: No it's lahvely Lady #2: Thank you dahling...

Theatre: Jersey Boys

From the Tony Awards 2006 I caught Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre Monday night. I saw it with Grant and we must have looked like a right pair of luvvies as a lady in front of us from Cincinnati asked us if we get to the theatre all the time living in London. I wasn't quite sure if that was a question asking us whether we liked musical theatre. Whatever the line of questioning was, I wasn't going to admit that I had just bought on DVD Show Business . Besides it had been over a week since I had last been to a theatre. And that was fringe theatre... Jersey Boys - a show about some workin' class boys from New Jersey makin' good - was was all class. Rather than the usual trick of being a juke box of hits strung together for an unbelievable story, or weaving a string of b-side songs into a nights entertainment because that is all the rights that were available, this show tells the story of the boys rise to fame using their music. Their story moves at breakneck spe

Hot news this week in London...

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'I've been trying to die in Southwark for the past two weeks but I just can't afford it' , originally uploaded by rensenbrink78 . Well London is so expensive no matter what you want to do...

Overheard in the bathroom department of Habitat Monday

Man: Oh take a look at that. Now you won't like that will you? Woman: Oh no... No! NO!

Movies: The Orphanage

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The Orphanage was a funny sort of film to be watching on Easter Sunday... A movie about dead orphans that don't seem to be dead. But since it was in Spanish it had an art house feel to what is essentially a mystery about a boy who disappears while his parents are moving in to the old orphanage his mother went to. To give away any more of the story would be to ruin the fun(?), thrills(?) of the film. Of course, if you have seen The Others or The Sixth Sense, you will know that dead people are not to be feared as they are your friends (or at the very least they just have a few issues like the Maitlands in Beetlejuice ). Bearing this in mind I didn't find it scary. But it still was a creepy way to spend a few hours in the dark... Particularly with that kid (pictured above) popping in every now and then...

Scenes from Albert Embankment Friday

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210320084275 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Albert Embankment is the best place where one can admire the natural beauty of London and its iconic architecture...