Yesterday was our first day on land since July 27th. We were at Brooklyn Pier 12 by 4.45 in the morning, although none of us were up and functioning to see us glide by the Statue of Liberty! No change there then! We had ordered breakfast in our cabin so we could be out early to get into Manhattan by the time the biggest toyshop in the world was open!
W thinks that room service is the best invention ever, and assumes that on returning home Rice Krispies and fresh fruit platters will be served to him each morning upon launching himself from his heavily unmade bed. He also thinks that a 'man' will that from now on always come in discreetly and tidy hbis toys and bed! Fat chance!
We made it through Homeland Security and wended our way outside into 85 degrees of heat. We jumped into a cab and 45 minutes later we were outside FAQ Schwarz, the biggest toy shop in the known universe and excited harmony reigned! Thank the Lord there was a coffee shop, air conditioned and clean and fresh and I was ensconced for over 2 hours and 3 glasses of iced water and 1 espresso later W eventually found a Lego birthday present, and we were all toyed out!
Emerging from the shop the temp had risen to an unbearable 97 degrees and even my daughter who was clearly a lizard in a former life found the heat and huge humidity level exhausting and unreal. We decided that all we could manage was an air conditioned trip back to an air conditioned ocean liner, and a long icy cold drink as a reward!
I love cold weather. I love cold weather.....100 times!
Back to Patience.
I had three young principals who were taking their first real roles, and they excelled themselves, and, I believe, added hugely to the overall high standard of the whole show. M was playing Lady Saphir, and at just 18 has a beautiful and rapidly growing voice which shows much promise for the future. Bless her, she had all the most difficult words in the libretto, it was as if Gilbert had contrived to give all such words as Botticellian, and Cynasure, and Fra Angelican etc. to the first ever Lady Saphir was, and who could clearly speak very well and was academic enough to understand. M did it beautifully. She sang with elegance and grace, and acted with a surprisingly uninhibited freedom for a teen!
R was Lady Ella, and had the task of being the first really big high note in the show! She was terrific, she looked and sounded gorgeous and performed with dignity and elegance. Her voice has grown so much in the last 6 months I think she holds the biggest leap forward award in Inner Sound! I was not only impressed by her maturity, especially as a 15 year old, but also by her solidity of tone throughout the whole show, and her uninhibited ability to soar all the top A's and sustain with such good breath control. She is a text book example of the priceless value of early starting with safe teaching.
My final entry in the dreamteam of principals is our Major, who was so well played by L. I was not so much astonished by his singing, which was as usual, excellent and full of lovely warm dark tone, but by his very funny dialogue! He was extremely humorous, making the lines so funny I think that after Bunthorne he had the the most laughs of any dialogue! His was an all round performance, and he was a solid in singing the parts in trios and quintets as any of the more experienced folk! I was truly delighted with his performance and watched with pride how he works around his mobility problems, solving everything with dignity and sheer talent. He has developed vocally very much over the last year, and deserves much success.
What a fine trio of youthful sparkle!
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