…well, we knew that. But her behaviour lumbering Tony with going round with that bloody awful - and batshit crazy, it would now appear - Joy was bizarre. She seemed to find it funny. She does funny about as well as a camel executes the gavotte. Unfortunately, the same can be said of the SWs, so no way of telling whether they wanted us to think that she was trying to be skittish and amusing and just inept at it, or whether they had a “Pat plays a jolly prank on Tony, the listeners will roll about” bulletpoint in their tiny minds.
Yes, great camel cozzy, but I can’t help but think that The Birmingham Opera Company would be doing that piece without a huge public grant.
… &, as for Legs & Co. No words suffice.
I met Shirley Ballas on Monday. Did I say ?
Well … I say “met” she was in a delicatessen & restaurant where myself & the Surprising one had eaten and we crossed shopping baskets & a couple of polite, none dance related words. I said to Mrs. Armrest “that woman looks just like Shirley Ballas” to which she surprisingly responded “that’s because it is !!”.
The individual scenes had been performed singly, so the Lucicamel costume already existed, designed and constructed under the composer’s supervision.
This though was the première production of the complete opera - the last of the cycle to be fully staged. It was very much intended as a showcase event, and funding came from the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. It worked - five sold-out performances and Birmingham Opera firmly established as one of the most innovative and fearless companies in the world. Not bad when you remember it’s very much a community project.