Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando

..and me at the Proms.
A busy afternoon and evening in London for me today. First to Petty France to pick up a laptop for the next stage of the recruitment exercise I have been involved in. Then to the National Gallery to see a free exhibition about the subject, Miss La La, of this painting by Degas. Her real name was Anna Albertine Olga Brown who was born in Prussia in 1858. Her mother was German and her father an African-American wood merchant. She was an aerialist and in this painting she has been pulled to the top of the circus dome on a rope that she is holding by a bit between her teeth. She was a major attraction on the Paris night scene, a trailblazer as a mixed race artist of other African Americans, like Josephine Baker, who found artistic freedom in the City of Light. And then on to the Albert Hall for tonight's Promenade Concert featuring works by British composers - Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams- with London as their common theme. There were also some songs by Stanford who taught Holst and Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music. The extras are of an information display about Miss La La and a view of the packed Albert Hall appreciating the BBC Symphony Orchestra and their conductor this evening, Martin Brabbins.