Agrippina, Harrods and Museums

In front of the remnants of an old Roman Wall right next to the Museum of London.

A week ago today, actually, our group went to see Handel's opera Agrippina. Since it was at the English National Opera house it was performed in English. I have to admit that it was more difficult to understand the lyrics than I thought it would be, but I enjoyed it. The music was amazingly beautiful.

I spent the weekend (where else?) in museums. I went to the Victoria and Albert on Friday to look through their gallery on India, in particular, but I also went through their Fashion Gallery and through their hall of statues. Before that, however, I popped into the infamous Harrods really quickly (I promised my roommates we'd go together) and I'm glad I did because it was the last day of their special guitar exhibition: Born To Rock: The Life and Times of the Electric Guitar. There were 150 guitars on display, I guess, but my favorite was the "The Frying Pan" which is the world's oldest electric guitar. While there were a few guitars there that were played by famous musicians (Brian Jones, Keith Richards, etc) the majority of the collection were customized novelty guitars, which I didn't find especially appealing - they were too ostentatious.

Saturday I went to the Museum of London to peruse the 18th century and Victorian galleries to fit them in before they close for 18 months renovations this week. It was wonderful. Can I call it my favorite museum? It's in the top five. It focused on English history - specifically, though not exclusively London history. I've been seeing so much about other histories and cultures at the British Museum and the like, so I appreciated this taste of England. I tagged along for a few gallery performances which were very well done. Since the Museum of London is right in the middle of the old City of London there are remnants of the Roman Wall on either side of the building. And right in front of the museum is a memorial marking the approximate spot where John Westley had his "great conversion experience".

On Monday my politics class went to the London office of the European Parliament to speak with the chief librarian there about Parliament. Before coming here I largely ignored the EU, but I've really enjoyed learning about it lately. It's interesting to study Britain's convoluted and tentative participation in the EU. I spent Monday night explicating a passage of Shakespeare. It was actually quite fun. I haven't studied Shakespeare in class (or any poetry) since high school, strangely enough, so it was a difficult paper to begin. I procrastinated a good deal too - I shouldn't have waited 'til the night before.

My history professor took us to the Enlightenment Gallery of the British Museum on Tuesday to study up on that period of Empire and expansion and then I went to St. Martin's-in-the-Field for a terrific piano performance. The acoustics were wonderful and the church is gorgeous, but the music! He preformed Liszt and Schubert and Mozart's Sonata in F and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I had just begun to learn the Moonlight Sonata when I left and now I don't know that I want to continue he was so fabulous. Very well trained. When I hear music like that I both wish I performed and am grateful that I don't. I can understand how many hours - how many years - he has devoted to his work and I wish I had that commitment and talent, but I also understand the cost and am content with my little weekly lessons. The night made me especially miss having a piano around.
Okay, well that's my last week. No big headline excursions, perhaps, but lots of little trips.