Actually it was not really so gloomy but crossing the Millennium Bridge from St Pauls Cathedral to Tate Modern this morning, after an epic 90 minute bus ride from Fulham on the good ol' number 11, this cloudy iPhone picture to the east, to Renzo Piano's Shard and Tower Bridge, somehow summed up London's summer so far.
My younger daughter and I went to the stunning, often disturbing, Damien Hurst show at Tate Modern. She had been before and wanted to return - I was fascinated to see a retrospective of this notorious artist. Seeing his work in the context of such a career long survey was enlightening and made it easy to understand his fame. It is only on until September 9 - go for it, I guarantee it will change any negative view you may have, and reinforce the positives.
But the evening was all sunshine with a totally enjoyable concert performance of Il viaggio a Reims at the Royal Opera House. This was the summer performance by the Jette Parker young artists, and since this year is the 10th anniversary of that program they had the brilliant idea of bringing as many of the outstanding artists from the past as they could muster. So we were treated to remarkable performances by the likes of Matthew Rose and Marina Poplavskaya, and a good many others who have brought honor and glory to the program and are making sterling careers around the world. It was a fine showcase of achievement altogether.
Now it is late, way after midnight here........more fun tomorrow!
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