Author Archive
CHORAL Music: Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini
Nov 02 2022- Madeleine
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Sung by The 1885 Singers, based in All Saints, Putney.
This Mass is Romcom-meets-God !! Possibly about as irreverent as the film ‘Life of Brian’ which retold the life of Jesus as a musical. Rossini wrote his last great work for friends, and said himself he wasn’t sure if it was sacred or sacrilegious. The Pope banned the orchestral version with female voices.
THEATRE REVIEW: My Neighbour Totoro
Nov 01 2022- Madeleine
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My Neightbour Totoro is at the Barbican until 21 January 2023.
Totoro is a kind of Japanese Winnie-the-Pooh and has become a legend both in Japan and around the world. The film by Miyazaki dates from the 80s, but is set in 50s Japan, in the countryside. This first ever staging of the film is a triumph. I even dressed up as a Totoro, accompanied by my Japanese husband, Tadashi, and teenage daughter, Emily, who has grown up with the whole Studio Ghibli film library.
HALLOWEEN OUTING to a PUMPKIN FARM
Oct 26 2022- Madeleine
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Crockford Bridge Farm, near Guildford, off the A3. Easy peasy.
The quirkiest farmyard I’VE ever seen! A great outing for the kids and an opportunity to pick up a few pumpkins, I say a few, but the CHOICE. 8 varieties possibly, smooth and knobbly, great and small, speckled and just reassuringly orange. With helpful cooking tips to make the most of each type.
COOK BOOK Review: ‘Feel Good’ by Melissa Hemsley presented at Coppa Club Putney
Oct 23 2022- Madeleine
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At a special event hosted at the beautiful restaurant Coppa Club Putney, Melissa Hemsley greeted us joyfully in a yellow Gingham dress with poofy sleeves, as if she was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, about to take us on a journey to a better place. And indeed she walked us through the thought processes that inspired her new book Feel Good. She writes sympathetically for the over-worked and under-rested, which pretty much describes most of us mums.
Film review: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
Oct 16 2022- Madeleine
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Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a PG Comedy/Drama.
This is a Franco-British love-up, for all those die-hard Francophiles out there. The fashionistas will salivate over the sacred reenactment of a 1950s Dior fashion show, with genuine outfits including a version of the 1949 Bar Suit, which can now be seen at the V&A.
It’s also delightful. The culture clashes are delicate and charmingly resolved, the prickly Parisian is present, but outnumbered. Every character is nudged on to the next phase in their journey, even the mighty Christian Dior himself, who agrees to go off the peg and global at the insistence of our well-intentioned heroine, nicknamed ‘Madame Dior’ in Paris.
