Birmingham Hippodrome

This picture could equally well apply to yesterday as to today, although those of you who saw yesterday's blip will know why I've left it until today to talk about going to the opera!

Yesterday, after blipping, I went to Scharwenka's for lunch, then collected the Wonderspouse from work early and we drove to Birmingham to see The Magic Flute, which was wonderfully comedic and, of course delightful music. We also met up with the lovely Orchid99, which was wonderful too.

After a late night, the Wonderspouse had taken annual leave today so we slept in until late, ate pancakes, went shopping, each wrote a bit of our NaNoWriMo novels, then set off for Birmingham once again.

We had enough time to wander round the Bullring centre (looking at model kits for submarines and camouflage teddy bears (me) and Hello Kitty duvet covers (him)). We both delighted in the wonderful foodstuffs available in Selfridges, although we'd had a tasty supper bought from Morrisons in Stratford en route.

Then to Fidelio, one of my favourite operas of all time. The highlights for me are always the quartet Mir ist so wunderbar and the sublime and amazing prisoners' chorus O welche Lust. Both were fabulous. Florestan (an understudy) was maybe the weakest part of the production for me, but all in all it was a splendid evening.

We didn't manage to see Ariadne auf Naxos this time, but Magic Flute followed by Fidelio made for a great operatic couple of days!