Living for the weekend...

[arcadiagt5]

Seems to be what I'm doing right now, even with working 3 hours on Saturday.

On Saturday evening I rode up to visit dalekboy , shazgirl , and Lex for an evening of dinner, cheese, and Casino Royale (spoliery link)

I hadn't seen the reboot of the Bond franchise and as Quantum of Solace follows directly on this was a great opportunity for a pleasant evening catching up with friends. I quite liked Casino Royale, the grittier less gadgety feel worked really well for me and for the first time that I can remember I'm looking forward to seeing a Bond film in the cinemas.

On Sunday I went to see the National Capital Orchestra at Llewellyn Hall. The program yesterday was both long and loud so I certainly got my money's worth (as usual). :)

The program started with Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and ended with Shostakovich's Symphony No 7 - Leningrad. In the middle we had a selection of arias performed by Rachael Duncan at somewhat lower volume.

The Fanfare is a fun, short, and loud piece of music and it is nice to see the horns take centre stage every so often (you usually don't get to see the horn players as they're hidden behind the strings).

Ms Duncan has a superb voice and I enjoyed the arias a lot more than I was expecting to. Opera has never really done much for me, and I occasionally get put off by some of the vocal hijinks that seem to be expected for this sort of thing. However, Ms Duncan was clearly enjoying the performance, as was the orchestra, and I think this is what made the difference for me.

And now for the Shostakovich. This is an impressive piece of music that everyone should hear performed live at least once, and I'm grateful to the NCO for the opportunity. It was well played and I certainly appreciated the energy that went into it. Having said that, I won't be looking for a CD to load onto the iPod.

It would be fair to say that I enjoyed the experience of the Shostakovich more than I enjoyed the music itself.