Enablers of the worst, defenders of the good

Pledged to stay off all media and focus entirely on work from Monday onwards. Easy enough on Zoom preparation and delivery days, but otherwise I couldn't avoid the Bluesky feed, despite blocking the words 'Trump', 'inauguration' and 'Musk'. At least I never heard any of the triumphal bile coming out of the monsters' mouths.

What can I say, except that the one thing I've learnt through experiencing a shattering event of this kind close to home for the first time is disgust at the enablers: the Democrats who attended the first big lie of a ceremony, the crowning of a convicted criminal (even Bernie Sanders was there, and preached reason; my greatest hope of all politicians, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, was not, and has been a fearless fighter-back so far); the Republicans and the police who were dumb enough not to believe that other criminals would be set loose in a pattern that mirrors exactly what Hitler did on the first day of his government; Congress and the American legal system which left us with the ludicrous situation of a thing in the White House who should have been behind bars long ago; above all the apologists and would-be explainers-away of That Salute, the media who told us to enjoy it all or normalised it (and that's not just the right wing press). 

Not all that was predictable. Nor was a person of the church pleading for mercy in front of the spawn of Satan - may there be more like her (top image by the brilliant Cold War Steve). The start of the horrors? Totally foreseen.

Enough already. I'll try to follow my own advice to work, walk in nature, see friends, go to the concert-hall, opera-house, theatre, cinema, art gallery. And otherwise my hands are full because I have a very important funeral to think about. That, at least, is falling into place.

French music after Berlioz: the next Zoom step

After a Zoom term and a half on Berlioz, I moved on to Saint-Saëns and Chabrier (total originals, earning their places in the front rank of composers however light they may mostly have kept it), Franck and Chausson, with the adventure in fascinating Fauré launched but to be continued. I'd originally thought of this term on Debussy and the summer spent with Ravel, but because their fellow composers still need to keep making appearances, decided to do both chronologically: this term will take us up to 1914. 

I've discovered some real rarities along the way - Saint-Saëns's early chamber music, Chausson's incidental music to a puppet-play version of Shakespeare's The Tempest (which starts with the first ever appearance of the celesta). I'm sure more will emerge from Thursday afternoon onwards (looking forward, for instance, to discovering more of Mel Bonis). Join us live from tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon onwards or get the videos if you can't attend. Details below (click to enlarge). 

Opera in Depth on Zoom: Britten's dark heart

Prepare for fleshcreep if you've joined, or want to join, the spring term of my Opera in Depth Zoom course. Inspired afresh by the remarkable achievement of Isabella Bywater's remarkable production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw for English National Opera, with a groundbreaking central performance by Ailish Tynan (pictured above as the Governess with Jerry Louth's Miles by Bill Knight), I thought it was time to turn back to this masterpiece, the composer's most rigorous, which I first experienced as a Hesse student scene-changer at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1983. 

As I've never covered Owen Wingrave in class, and found it more fascinating than I'd previously thought in Neil Bartlett's Aldeburgh production, superbly cast from experienced and young singers and conducted by the great Mark Wigglesworth, I thought I'd do a Britten/Henry James double. That rather reduced the time I was intending to spend on Handel's Giulio Cesare, due a top line-up with Harry Bicket and the English Concert later in the year. But Handel can always be excerpted (heresy! But I do come to love his operas ever more).

Places still available - you can join from anywhere in the world and get the videos if you can't make the classes. The course starts tomorrow (Monday) at 2.30pm UK time. Full details here; click to enlarge.

Last photos of mum

Every visit to see mum relaxed and happy in her wonderful care home, Greenacres, was a pleasure. The very last pic I put at the head of the last post, of her being wheeled by cousin Diana and her husband Lee to the YouTube Christmas concert I held in the conservatory. Here she is with them just before that, decked out in the Xmas jumper brought along by DiDi (you might also just make out the Winchester Bible enamel brooch I bought her, about which she very genuinely enthused - never one to fake it).

The two loveliest of carers, Myrna and Krishna, happened to be working on Xmas Day, and Myrna made the WhatsApp connection possible so that Mum got to see the view from Sophie's balcony in Siena

and also to say hello to our hostess, here looking pleased with the Mali crib I found her in a Bologna cloister charity sale. 

It was a good day between chest infections: her voice was bright and strong, and as always she was fully responsive to everything even if she'd forgotten where we were. I'm happy for that, and no regrets other than that I wasn't with her right at the end. 

Exactly a year ago, I sat beside her bed in Epsom Hospital when she was suffering from an infection, having been admitted with COPD, Covid and pneumonia, and delirious, not expected to last the night, and found how miraculously her ravings were completely stilled by the Mozart slow movements I played her. She pulled through then, came back to herself after a month in hospital - the change the minute she got back to Greenacares was astonishing - and got to celebrate her 93rd birthday in style, with all her Banstead friends plus my 'sisters', goddaughter Sara with daughter Hanna and grandson Lenny, and cousin Diana with Lee.

Around Easter there was another blip which brought me back from Ireland earlier, only to find her sitting up and doting on the ducklings which receptionist Sarah had hatched and brought around. 

After that she got ever livelier, her memory actually improving, until nearly the very end. I'm profoundly grateful for the love and care shown by her carers, especially Krishna, Franco, Myrna and Sarah. Here's Myrna with her last month.

This is a quiet time while the coroner signs off, I get the death certificate and the funeral arrangements can go ahead - no point me returning from Dublin until early next week*. We'll give her a grand send off, I know, and celebrate a life well lived. More on that anon.

*Update: I saw the undertaker, solicitor and Vicar Kate on Thursday. The funeral service is fixed for 2.30pm on Tuesday 4 February at All Saints Banstead. All welcome. Death certificate issue is taking ages, partly due to the typical unhelpfulness of mum's surgery, the Longcroft Clinic - the black sheep of the pack.