2006

2006
I saw Madame Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday 21 January. It was a fabulous production and one of the finest operas I have seen. I was impressed and Rosario Dawson (swoon) was the lead. It was a magnificient afternoon and incredibly moving, I am such a sucker for these sad operas and always shed a tear or two.

February brought Billy Connolly to town, and we had a family evening and all had a grand old time, laughing and trying not to wet ourselves. If you only see one comedian, see Billy...

Keryl and I had a sublime evening of classical music, Mozart in fact, back in April. I love hearing classical music live, watching the orchestra, seeing the musicians expressions, listening to each part and just meditating to their beauty.

May was busy with Ultra Swing and Circus Oz and as always they both delivered. Later in the month Mary, Keryl and myself saw the play, Doubt. It is a thought provoking piece, if you have seen the Meryl Streep movie you will know what I mean and the play is more subtle than the movie. Had us discussing the options for a while. The month was rounded out with the thumping groove of the reggae master, Afro Moses. Giving Bob a run for his money, this gorgeous man can not only sing fantastically, but beat the drum pretty darn hot too!

June was another busy month, with an Arabian ballet of 1001 nights - fabulous costumes, dance and hypnotic music. The following weekend was Split Enz at Sydney Entertainment Centre - their reunion tour and we had seats close to the front, we all (Karen, Mal, Amanda and myself) had smiles on our faces all night, they just kept churning it out, song after song, all having a grand time on stage. The month was rounded out by the travelling comedy festival (so so) and Merchant of Venice (Bell Shakespeare).

Porgy and Bess came to the civic in late July, an American company and stunning voices, I was in my element at this as it is one of my favourite operas. And I adore the Gershwins...I have always said if I had to pick ONE song that I could only ever listen to (and if you know me, you would know how incredibly difficult that would be) I would pick Rhapsody in Blue! So we got lots of cotton pickn' songs, It ain't necessarily so and ....Summertime....oh my!!!!

The next opera was in November and the highly anticipated Anthony Warlow/David Hobson version of Pirates of Penzance. Anthony was originally scheduled to play the pirate king years ago when he had cancer and had to pull out, so finally the time had come to revisit. He had a modern Johnny Depp/Captain Jack Sparrow twist to the king, but it worked. And Hobson was a perfect Frederick. Great, funny performances in a great, funny opera. Was a true delight!

November brought more music...U2 at the ACER arena, for a spectacular night under a November sky that threatened and at some point delivered rain. The boys were in fine form and Bono surprised us all (well ok me) by singing the Pavarotti parts of Passenger...I was beyond impressed and felt shivers up my spine. U2 always deliver and I think this was their finest concert. A few weeks later we were at the Belmont 16s to see Mondo Rock - ok not as spectacular, but still fine. Ross Wilson cut it on stage after all these years and I was excited to see James Black - my fav (after Julia - who I want to be!) from RocKwiz - up there on keyboards. You forgot how many songs you knew and it was a good night, although could have done without the middle aged boozed up bogans who seem to frequent that club.