The garden party we attended, celebrating ten years of the Browns' marrriage, had about 150 guests, all old friends, all chatting away like mad things. You could hear the buzz of the bees in the sunlight, the quiet music accompanying the entertainment and the tink of stirring teaspoons. At least half the guests had BSL as a first language.
About ten years ago, we were invited to see English National Opera's production of The Damnation of Faust (Willard White as Faust. Wow.) by these deaf friends. If you are deaf, ENO will sell you tickets at a huge discount. Every opera in the season's repertoire has one performance which is signed, and this was the one we were lucky enough to see. The young woman was beautiful to watch, as she translated the entire opera - I would say single handed, but BSL needs two hands - on her own. It was a graceful, hypnotic performance, and she, quite rightly, took a bow with the principals at the end.
Our friend Mrs Brown told us that Norma Major, during her husband's tenure as PM, had attended one such evening, and had subsequently written to the ENO management, expressing her horror that an evening of opera should be ruined by such a distracting presence.
Sometimes I struggle with the Tories, and sometimes I really struggle.
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A perfectly reasonable life spins out of control . . .
About Me
- Mangonel
- Dealer in disease, destruction and death with a kick like a mule. And a BIG crush on Stephen Mangan. Which Significant Other knows nothing about.
Things to do before I die
- See the Aurora Borealis
- Take an actual proper music exam
- Read Clarissa
- Visit Everest Base Camp and see the Khumbu Ice Falls
1 comment:
Ah, the idiots. People like that are starved.
I had a dreadful crush on a girl that used to sign a lot of the gay events in town in the late '80s. She was absolutely beautiful, or was made so by her grace and movement. Signing can be like a dance. It's a language with a depth mere words can't reach.
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