Two little leftovers from today’s round-up: firstly, the Weston director’s best new idea (and simplest! why didn’t I think of it, over the 3 years of composition and the months of rehearsal?! I could kick myself! Such a basic theatrical idea): that the robin, so important a character in The Secret Garden, should be danced! By an actor. This not only works deliciously and magically but also once more embodies Burnett’s sense of the robin as friend; besides which, I always saw the robin as Burnett herself, human as bird and vice versa, guiding Mary to the secret garden. And secondly my dear friend Charlotte’s photo taken in the Chinese buffet (and nothing to do with opera), my hat! my cap, which fits me as perfectly as it did the day I chose it after long examination of dozens and dozens like it in Tetouan market, in Morocco, 45 years ago. It wasn’t my favorite design, but the fit was decisive; I had doubts, but thank goodness I set them aside. These 45 years it has never left my side, through countless moves of abode. Always useful (in the freezing cold we’re enduring), holding its place night and day (literally, I wear it at night too) as if made for my skull. I think it was.
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