Gone for a week or so...

I will return to posting sometime after 11 February. We are going to visit Christchurch for the first time and then up to Golden Bay for a week for some nice R & R. I have just finished a very difficult chapter of the book I am writing and am now in the home stretch. Yay! I will continue to work there but at a reduced pace. Look for pictures of the glorious south island in summer when I return. Until then or until the next internet access (whichever comes first, I should think). Here are some pictures of Leyla Gencer.

Then:



And now:



I want to spend some time on her when I return. Nasty glottal attacks, disembodied high notes of stunning delicacy, and goddammit high notes at all act curtains. Her presentation of Donizetti heroines is both an acquired taste and essential. But that is all for now but more, always more, later.