Opera's Greatest Hits

Yesterday afternoon we headed down the road to the lovely ancient moated house Crow's Hall near Debenham. The owner Caroline Spurrier organises an annual Charity Opera evening in the adjacent barn.

The weather was kind and a good crowd enjoyed Pimms and strawberries in the glorious gardens before the event.

It was good to have the opportunity to get dressed up for something for the first time in a couple years.

The music and singing was provided by London Festival Opera who performed an abridged but fully costumed version of Cosi Fan Tutte in the first half of the programme. There then followed an interval where we enjoyed canapés and fizz before a raffle and auction to raise funds for the children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent. The highlight of the evening for me was the second half in which the ensemble presented a sort of Opera's Greatest Hits. Some of the most famous and beautiful arias were performed exceptionally well and Mary Plaza's rendition of Un Bel Di from Madame Butterfly reduced Marion to tears. It was a fitting finale to a lovely evening. The programme overran so we didn't enjoy our super picnic from Leo's Deli in the garden as originally planned but ate it at home in front of the comparatively lowbrow (but still enjoyable) Britain's Got Talent.

In other news I finally got around to publishing my novel on Amazon. It's been a long haul getting to this point and the next job is to try and get it noticed. Thanks to those friends and family who have bought a copy I have a few sales and when I get back from France I hope to do a little promotion to try and raise its profile. It's a romance set on a beautiful Greek island in 1969 and was described by an established author as romantic, funny and touching. You can see a little more about it by clicking this link. If you are enrolled on Amazon Prime you can read it for free using their library service.