Found it. bsky.app/profile/bord...

"But we must compete with the oth-" That's just it. You don't. You are THE public broadcaster. No other body shares your mission. Why add to the noise? The BBC has an opportunity to say "you've heard all the breathless gossip - tune in at 6pm for the facts". To bring light rather than heat.

Deeply confused by tonight’s Stalls seating layout in the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, where my seat in row H is immediately behind row F and in front of row K (and has no easily-visible label to tell you it’s H…) Here for the Royal Ballet In Rehearsal insight event, on The Nutcracker.

I’ve lurked a lot on Instagram in the last few months, because some of my favourite people ended up mostly there when Twitter went downhill. But why does it think I want to see such an overwhelming volume of a) pregnancy and birth content, and (b) tours of aspirational NYC apartments? 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️

I hate diary juggling 🤯 - not that I don’t like mapping out plans for the future (an activity that suits me so well that it’s literally my job) but there are always too many things I want to do, and too many clashes, and it’s always contrary to my burning desire to be a recluse 🤣

Join us at @stolavehartst.bsky.social this afternoon for Choral Evensong on a Remembrance theme. Did I dep out Sunday’s service, when they were doing most of the rest of the Fauré Requiem which barely has an alto line, but hang onto this one because we’re doing the Offertorio? No comment 🤐

Tonight’s Lidl pasta. My Italian is not the best, but I think they meant “ripieni”…

Mega-niche programming shout-out: early Baroque-ish Christmassy things for not more than SSATB (or SSATTB at a pinch) plus instruments (quartet) which involve, or /could/ involve recorders? I have the Messe de Minuit, obviously...

The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think. New piece from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

Planning next year’s summer opera festival dates with my friends. There’s a spreadsheet… If anyone has any gen on dates there’s going to be an opera at the Proms so we don’t get double-booked, please tell me… (I don’t need details - not asking for embargoed secrets - just “keep this date free”).

A foggy Remembrance Sunday morning on the shuttle train from Slough to Windsor. You’ll have to take my word for the fact that you can usually see Windsor Castle at this point…

The government says it wants to achieve growth but then it doesn't want immigrants, doesn't want to electrify the railways, and doesn't want high-speed trains. It's like me saying I want to lose weight and then eating a full English every day for breakfast.

In case this is useful to anyone who may not otherwise have seen it…

I’m off to the Guildhall to see their Smyth/Respighi opera double bill, and I see they’ve broken with recent frustrating convention among the London conservatoires by letting their students’ programme bios give away details of next term’s opera. Which is Owen Wingrave.

When will I learn to check bridge lift times before trying to take a bus over Tower Bridge?

Had the most fabulous Turkish meal at this restaurant just off Upper Street (London N1) last night with some people from work. It even got our Turkish colleague’s seal of approval.

I’ve just been booked for a carol singing gig on 17th November. Is this, recording sessions aside, a record?

Perfect summation of the UK Labour Party right there, any opportunity to learn something they will instead stick their fingers in their ears and go "la la la"

I wonder when @operahollandpark.bsky.social will be announcing casting for next season 🤔 - I think all the other summer opera companies have.

Every one of you thought of a specific person after reading this

okay does this include the press?

If anyone fancies having a listen to the mostly-Orlando-Gibbons concert I sang in just over a week ago, it’s currently on YouTube courtesy of the venue’s standard church streaming setup. Intro begins at 00:03:30, music begins at 00:09:00, and it resumes after the interval at about 00:59:45.

This is FAR from the most obstructively I’ve found a dockless bike parked outside my front door, but come ON, I know you’re an idiot but seriously?

I am having a quiet night in after a hectic weekend, and was so averse to the idea of doing the housework that I decided to do my tax return instead 🤣

@stolavehartst.bsky.social Hello! Delighted to see you over here - that’s one more account I no longer need to be on Twitter for…

As we read about Sodom in this week's Torah portion, a brief reminder that according to Jewish tradition the sin of Sodom had nothing to do with sexuality, it was that they criminalized helping the poor and the visitor.

Most contemporary operas fail not because of the music but because of dramatically limp librettos. But Dead Man Walking is a theatrical + musical triumph: total commitment by the ENO company. Jake Heggie does tremendous work with Terrence McNally’s first-rate libretto. Taut and terrific. Go!

A couple of weeks ago this looked like it was going to be a pretty quiet Saturday, with only my evening plans formalised. Now, because various things just happened, it looks like this: - The Makropulos Case (dress rehearsal) 11:30 - Operation Mincemeat (again) 15:00 - Dead Man Walking 19:00 🙈

Next time I smugly book something in Battersea on the basis that it doesn’t involve going into town, remind me how much longer it takes to get there…

Well, this is a helpful state of affairs on the TV Licensing website on the last day of a month (all UK TV licenses expire on the last day of a calendar month).

Splendid Hallowe’en thread from the RSPB!

Hallelujah… I think. The date of my work Christmas party (starting in the afternoon) has been moved from 5th to 4th December. Which means I’m not going to turn up to Opera Rara’s Rondine concert drunk… but also means I now don’t have a cast-iron excuse to leave the party early 🤔

Why do I get the impression that they won’t be charging traditional working-class prices for this?

OK, I keep seeing this “21st century” epithet and it is bugging me. Dead Man Walking was written and premiered in 2000, which, if you actually start counting from the number 1, was the final year of the 20th century. It feels like it’s being gratuitously described that way to make it stand out.

Looks like the Picturehouse chain has started to get picky about which cinemas show which Met Live in HD. There are only 2 I care about this season - Arabella and Tristan - and it appears that while I can see the latter at my nearest branch in East Dulwich, I’ll have to go to Greenwich for Arabella.

I need Zack to reply to the next teeth comment by presenting that the NHS should cover full dental 🦷

As one of the many people who qualified for an NHS Covid booster last year but doesn’t meet the new eligibility criteria, I’ve just been for one privately. Pharmacist jabbed me and then, as I was getting my phone out to pay, quipped: “Now comes the painful part…” #pharmacistjokes

I'm a bit 😐 on people going "this is why Labour, the Lib Dems and Greens need to team up!" coz...those parties are nowhere near each other politically. You think Labour and the Lib Dems will give up their pro-austerity policy? That Labour will reverse its anti-trans legislation?

This is the future liberals want.

Big donor money buys you very few votes in a country where everyone is keenly aware that they are continually getting poorer, food is continually getting smaller and more expensive, and the infrastructure we all used to own is now the key thing bankrupting us.

Apparently (as informed by various companies’ social media posts) tomorrow is World Opera Day. I hadn’t even noticed! This dyed-in-the-wool opera fanatic will be spending the day in the wilds of Hampshire singing choral music by Orlando Gibbons. But the rest of you, go wild! See an opera! 🤣

Somehow, next Saturday, I appear to be going to 3 different shows in a day 🙃

Men! If you’re apologising for (inadvertently) making inappropriate physical contact with a woman, can you MAYBE CONSIDER doing it without jovially planting your hand on an unsuspecting part of her anatomy that you weren’t previously touching? Jeeeeez.

Haven’t seen a show-stop at the Royal Opera House for a while. I’m at La fille mal gardée - the wheel of the pony-drawn cart got caught on the Act 2 front-cloth. Widow Simone (Thomas Whitehead) heroically disentangled everything but then the cloth was too damaged to be flown out… #livetheatre

Zack makes it sound easy to give straight answers to catch questions. He attacks the basis of the question and then answers directly.

A musician’s life in three acts

what the fuck are you talking about, she made a whole community of friends online and was stabbed to death by two of her classmates

I don’t know how I missed this, given that I walk past at least a couple of times a week, but what was the Lowlander on Drury Lane is under new management and has a new name 😕 - I’ve spent many a happy hour in there over the years with my brother, and had hoped to take him there for his 40th.

I can’t get my head round this simple piece of mental arithmetic: Friend & I are eating out on Wed. I paid a £20 deposit that will be deducted from our joint bill. I now, unrelatedly, owe the same friend a different £20. Who pays what on Wednesday? Somebody put me out of my misery, please 🤯

In Mexico, blackouts caused by data centers destroyed people's refrigerators and oxygen equipment in hospitals, and water shortages meant toilets couldn't flush in schools. AI is another version of colonial extraction.