Saw “Katya Kabanova” last night, an opera composed by Jan?cek. The Welsh National Opera performed a production of it last night at the New Theatre in Cardiff. You can read a full synopsis here. Basically, miserable in her marriage, harried by her mother-in-law, and suffocated by small town life in provincial Russia, Katya begs her husband Tichon not to leave on a business trip. But he goes and she commits adultery with young Boris. Racked by guilt and unnerved by a storm, Katya confesses…..’I am in such dire sin. If I love another man what shall become of me?’

I thought it was a very polished performance, but unfortunately, although it was moving, I didn’t find it all that powerful. I much preferred “La Boheme”. The end where Mim? is overwhelmed by a coughing fit and she dies unnoticed while they are preparing her medicine. And then you see Rodolfo pouring out his grief upon learning she has died. The fact that no one realises she has passed away and the anticipation of the moment when they do find out killed me. I was literally choking back the tears.

Rachel and I get really annoyed with people who diss opera. Most of them have never seen an opera, so what gives them the right to? I think opera is one of the most stunning pieces of art ever produced; the way they can entertain you, make you laugh and yet make you feel as if the world has ended. In other words, they take you through all the human emotions. Not many mediums do that. Opera deserves more respect.

Well well. I had the pleasure of going to my first BSL-terped art talk this afternoon. Yes. Cy Twombly: Fifty Years of Works on Paper.

Bringing together approximately sixty drawings and paintings on paper from the artist?s personal archive, the exhibition spans his career from the 1950s to the present. Many of the works have never been seen or exhibited before. Considered to be one of the greatest living American artists, Cy Twombly has received widespread admiration and critical acclaim internationally throughout his fifty-year career. Subverting traditional distinctions between painting and drawing, brush and pencil-work, poetry and image, he has made a highly individual contribution to the history of painterly abstraction.

It was at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Park Gardens at 3pm, terped by Karen Newby.

What did I think of? I enjoyed it, but the problem is, I’m not sure why. Was it simply because I had full access to a mainstream event? Or was it playing to my artistic side (I do have one thank you)? Or was the subject itself of particular fascination for me? I think it was the second. I do have an artistic side to me; my Grandad was a fantastic oil on canvas painter. He didn’t do original works, just copied prints and pictures from books. But he was interested in art. I am too. I’ve done a few paintings myself; they’re up in the attic at home in Newport.

During the talk today, I was even interpreting some of the paintings myself. That was a new thing for me.

Looks like these talks are gonna be a regular thing for me. Is that good or bad?