Had a wonderful day at Glyndebourne yesterday. Perfect weather, a great production (Billy Budd), and wonderful company (oh and some very special wines). With huge thanks to @malcolmjnoble.bsky.social for organising. #CountryChic #opera

Kettles Yard was fun too. The house is a bit of an oasis (if much bigger than I’d anticipated). #KettlesYard

Finally a whole day off in Cambridge. Not a bad place to have nothing to do… #Cambridge

Because I’m worth it… 😎

Donald Trump’s design aesthetic makes Liberace look like Mies van der Rohe.

Lovely work dinner at Newnham College Cambridge, preceded by drinks on the lawn. Not bad as far as venues go. #AllInADaysWork

A quiet morning in cute Cambridge. Having a coffee in a little park as throngs of tourists gawp at Newton’s apple tree across the street. I wonder if Newton was having a cortado too as he watched that apple fall… #eureka

Some of the good old Netherlandish works at London’s #NG. Not busy, airconditioned, dazzling masterpieces… what’s not to like? #OldMasters

Zurbarán at the National Gallery. Some fabulous stuff, though I don’t find all his people convincing or moving. #Zurbarán #painting #art

A brief moment of relative freshness after leaving the airconditioned auditorium. A ride on the Central Line brought me back to sweaty reality pretty quickish… 🥵

Praise be for airconditioning and bubbles at Wigmore Hall tonight. And #Schubert!

Staying with friends in London this weekend. No a/c, but looking out on so much green is already a blessing in the current heatwave. The difference with the view (of houses and traffic) I have in Amsterdam couldn’t be starker. I love my flat, but for a view like this, I’d move straightaway. #Goals

A lovely, relaxed morning off in Cambridge, with coffee and book (shops), before a hectic and hot week ahead. #MondayMorning

It took a while before I got my hands on exhibit A today. It was good (and very pretty), though I admit exhibit B proved a more satisfactory experience shortly after in Tropical Cambridge. #MidSummerMadness

Tonight’s restaurant offers solo diners a seat at the bar in the open window, with a view of Borough Market. Perfect on such a muggy evening, after several hours in Tate Modern. The wine is needed to cheer me up after the Tracey Emin… Cheers! 😳😇

My favourite London restaurant: Perilla. Just gorgeous. 😍

#1

Leaving Amsterdam early this morning on the Eurostar, the view of the IJ river was particularly welcome as temperatures were already getting tropical… #hot

Lovely drinks and dinner with a cousin, her husband, and my mother in a surprise location (picked by my cousin), which can only be described as peak Holland. #FamilyTies #Driehuizen

Finally a quiet morning, with coffee and newspapers. I had to work for a bit afterwards, but now I’m on a quiet train (listening to Ruby Hughes wonderfully contemplative album) on my way to drinks and dinner with family. Aaaaaaand… relax. #Sunday

Typisch NS: Op Amsterdam Centraal staat op de borden op perron 5A de trein naar Den Helder aangegeven, maar de trein staat op 5B. Ik zeg tegen de conducteur dat er veel reizigers op 5A staan. Zijn reactie: “Nou, ik sta op 5B.”

Another Holland Festival performance tonight. Heavy thumping music - but also delicate tender moments - in a promenade performance with movement, dance and poetry/spoken word. Very evocative and rather magical. (And closer to opera than many would imagine, I think.) #LivePerformance #HollandFestival

Opening night of the Luisi/Mijnssen Boccanegra at #DNO in Amsterdam. Should sound good with the #ConcertgebouwOrchestra. Will this production finally make sense of the libretto for me though? #LiveTheatre #opera

Lots of roses in bloom along the canals in #Amsterdam, looking gorgeous. 😎

Viotti and Kopatchinskaja in Amsterdam’s #Concertgebouw tonight. The opener is Bach’s Chaconne for orchestra. Hmm… 🤨💅🏼 #LiveMusic

Another long day, so I (hope I) deserve bubbles! #cheers

Your regular reminder that Roberta Mameli singing Händel is one of the best things online. #beauty youtu.be/msc8_G-6rcg?...

Phew. It’s been a loooooong day. Now: food! 💅🏼

Such wonderful light and colours in the countryside today. #Holland

Beach, bike, coffee. Could be worse… 💅🏼 #weekend

Blissfully quiet. #beach

Cheers, everyone! #weekend

I’m really enjoying this. A bit of a surprise, really. Not all of Orliński’s albums have been my cup of tea. (And I’m not normally of the piano school of baroque…) 😇😉 #counter

A great start to the bank holiday weekend, with drinks with friends on the water near Amsterdam’s Maritime Museum. Such a lovely, relaxed spot. #Amsterdam #weekend

Let’s start the weekend early… 😎🕺

Enough. I’m going to shamelessly do nothing for the rest of the evening. So there. #AsYouWere

Strong stuff! A FrOSch with an Amme who can throw her weight around. The pandemonium at the end of act II is fabulous. Like the storm when the Amme gets dismissed in act III (it takes balls to turn Resnik away from your door). #FrOsch youtu.be/Rsje5GX5-l4?...

Glory be! Karajan’s studio Aida and Don Carlo with Freni, Carreras and Baltsa are FINALLY available to stream. Best birthday gift. (Why, oh why did I throw away my CDs?) Oh, and I had a lovely dinner with my family. ❤️ PS I know the Don Carlo is 4 acts only and in Italian, but beggars... 🙄

Back to 15th C Antwerp tonight with #UtopiaEnsemble in Amsterdam. Finally some sunshine tonight, making the concert hall’s foyer the perfect spot for a pre-concert beer. Cheers, all! 💅🏼 #EarlyMusic #HIP

Greetings from a cloudy but green #Amsterdam. Have a great weekend.

#ListeningNow and enjoying this very much. Very much what i needed after a bit of a week… #TGIF

Some fabulous #Bach for Ascension from #NetherlandsBachSociety and Richard Egarr. #brilliant youtu.be/5hXUyuHVBAE?...

My bachelor’s degree in a nutshell. 😆

Tickets for friends of the #EarlyMusicFestivalUtrecht go on sale today at 10 am. Guess who is in a work call at that time? Since I’m chairing the call, I’ll have to take my chances afterwards. (And those HIP folks are hardcore, so it won’t be pretty.) Lots of good stuff to look forward to though… 🥷

A Bach-centric matinee… #HIP

Faces at Amsterdam’s @allardpierson.bsky.social archeological museum. #history #AncientEgypt

I don’t normally wear jewellery, but I really like my new broach. #glam

Finally some Mozart again tonight: the Amsterdam premiere of Serebrennikov’s Nozze under the baton of Francesco Corti. I haven’t read too much about the production, so I’ll let myself be surprised… (in a good way?) 😉 #Mozart #DutchNationalOpera

Not bad for a Thursday afternoon. Amsterdam showing its pretty side. #CityScape

The Soller era at Netherlands Bach Society is kicking into high gear with the latest concert tour. I’m seeing them in Amsterdam this Sunday. Can’t wait. 😎 #NetherlandsBachSociety #Bach