In 1995 I got to an opera in Amsterdam, at its new music theatre, which I did not find as enticing as the old Stadtschouwberg. But the performance was great fun, a production of ‘Il Trovatore’ by the Bulgarian Opera which was visiting.
But this was in fact my second visit to the place, for in the previous year I had seen some ballet there, on my way back to England when the British Council funded me for a conference at Leeds University, and used one of their free KLM tickets.
The pictures are of the new theatre and an old one, of a splendidly Gothic production of Trovatore, and then of the Dutch National Ballet in action.
A new music theatre in Amsterdam
I did not go abroad then that year, until the very end to have Christmas with Robert in Kuala Lumpur to which he had been transferred. And I was not in Europe until August, when the Council in Colombo funded attendance at a Commonwealth Literature Conference in Leeds. The ticket was one of their free ones so I flew through Amsterdam and had three nights there which allowed me to see the National Ballet perform at the Music Theatre, my first time there I believe.
On the 28th I flew to England and went to Oxford for three nights with lots of meals with friends, and then went on the 31st to London to get a coach to Leeds next morning. The Conference went on till Sunday the 4th, and that morning I went to see Tony Firth at his cottage in Terrington, going on after lunch to Liverpool to stay a night with Lucy Wood who was at the Walker Gallery there. Then I had a day in London to drop in to the Council’s Literature Department, and having gone to Eton for the day on the 6th I went on the next day to see the parents of David Woolger, my best friend amongst the Council’s consultants in Sri Lanka, who had died the previous year after getting an aneurism when we were both at the NIE.
That afternoon I saw the film of ‘Remains of the Day’ and later ‘Design for Living’ at the Donmar Warehouse together with Geraldine and Cathy, and the next day I went to the private view of Chris Keleher’s exhibition of paintings. On the Friday I flew to Amsterdam where I managed to see a triple bill at the ballet that evening, and then went back to Colombo the following day.
It was over a year before I was back in Europe, and that was for a very short visit. In December 1995 I was invited by the FNS to a meeting in Strassbourg, but managed to fly via Amsterdam, on Saturday December 9th, and saw a production that evening of ‘Il Trovatore’ by the Bulgarian Opera which was touring. The next day I flew to Strassbourg where I stayed at a very elegant Chateau. The workshop took place elsewhere and we visited various Human Rights centres, but then very early on the 14th I had to leave for my flight to Amsterdam and then go straight on to Colombo via Kuwait.