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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

At the theatre: joan rivers

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She was gorgeous, great and at 75 still getting a great reaction from the audience... And when she didn't she told us what a lousy audience we were... Memorable moments included pointing out what a dump the west end is... Well those paving bricks look like they have been there for a while... More later... Posted by email from paulinlondon's posterous

Trends in London this week...

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I don't know about you, but I can't wait to piss on the high street... Posted by email from paulinlondon's posterous

Icons of London: Bus stops

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250820088463 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . That Olympic handover ceremony in Beijing yesterday was really a chance for an overlooked London icon to have its moment in the sun: the bus stop (not to be confused with the bendy bus in the background). While a bus stop looks like a needle in haystack in a large stadium, in its natural habitat it seems to be of sensible enough proportions... Looking forward to seeing other pieces of public infrastructure on display for the opening ceremony such as, double yellow lines and burst water mains ...

Theatre: The Year Of Magical Thinking

Saturday night I finally caught up with The Year of Magical Thinking which has been playing since April at the National Theatre. Featuring Vanessa Redgrave on a chair, it tells the story of American author Joan Didion and how over a year she lost both her husband and her daughter and the process she went through in dealing with it (or more to the point not dealing with it). The play is based on her book however it exapnds the story to include the loss of her daughter as well. There is such a frank honesty to this story that even with the subject matter you can't help but be drawn into it. Perhaps it is the way it constantly asks the audience to reflect on this story as it will happen to all of us: the details will be different but the end result is the same. It was certainly was a novel way of reminding us all about our own mortality and how dealing with it is part of life. Perhaps the subject matter (people die), the fact that it was the bank holiday weekend and people may not

Overhead conversations of the summer...

Woman near Soho Square: I don't even say knickers any more; I just say, "get your daks off..." Homeless man on Oxford Street: I 'ope your 'ouse 'as been buuuurgled...

Movies: Wall-E

Earlier this week I caught Wall-E at the movies with Francois. I was keen to see what all the fuss was about. After watching it Francois told me that the central message of the film really was that it is okay to like musicals. I thought that was a fair assessment but added that given that Hello Dolly is central to the love story between Wall-E and Eve (the sexy female robot), it is reassuring that Jerry Herman musicals can appeal to heterosexual robots... Worth catching even if you don't like musicals as it is not a bad film... And there are a number of sci-fi film references too...

Hot news this week in London...

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Meanwhile, in Kilburn... , originally uploaded by LinkMachineGo . Well in Kilburn anyway ... At least there is still the Tricycle Theatre for entertainment...