Knitting...

Thanks to fellow blogger Intermezzo one does learn a lot of things about opera: for example that opera singer Anna Netrebko was seen in a concert on Monday night with a cream crochet beret - interesting, but the question remains: did she buy it or make it herself? (I found the pix in Ravelry. In case you like this one, it's called the beret gaufre by Veronik Avery)
There have been famous singers who knitted, the singer coming to mind in Kirsten Flagstad (if I remember correctly) who knitted lots of things for all her family in her dressing room. In fact, lots of musicians do. Even famous ones like Midori (acording to the knitting viola player), a fellow knitter.
I have to say that as much as I like knitting almost everywhere, I officially suck at knitting on stage. I tried in our last recital, in which I was supposed to play a person waiting in a waiting room (hence the knitting). I kept knitting back and forth the same row while G. was singing her way through the emboidery aria - a total disaster. I mean my knitting, not the singing. I haven't touched that project since!
We didn't take our knitting on Tuesday night when G. and I went to see Traviata at Covent Garden. G. had to overcome her disappointment when we discoverd in the morning that Dmitry Hvorostovsky wouldn't be able to perform due to illness. I happend to run into the man in question (by accident) in a big department store in London and I can say that he has so much charisma off duty that I was really curious to see him on stage. But no chance here. Instead, we got to see the recovered Mme Netrebko and the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. If you haven't heard of him, go a do a search on YouTube. He is amazing - and I'm not saying that because I'm rooting for my country here (which of course I am, but he IS really good). As I had a singing lesson today I found out that my singing teacher likes him as well. He showed me his Kaufmann CD with Strauss songs which was neatly packed on top of his bag for his trip up North this afternoon. I took some pictures from our lofty position up under the roof, but they are on my phone. My computer never recognises my mobile, I have to use G's laptop. I'll put them up later today. For more close-up pictures have a look here.