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Blog 22: Monteverdi - Coronation of Poppea Performance

Blog 22: Monteverdi - Coronation of Poppea Performance

MONTEVERDI MYSTERY IN THE PARK

PART II
Since early April we’ve been sending out regular blogs via MailChimp with only a few short gaps during all these months.

This has been possible because we have a genius at work behind the scenes. Our membership secretary, Lynden Easton, has worked miracles using only her computer at home to send evermore ambitious postings. If you cast your minds back you will remember that our earliest attempts were very welcome and quite simple.

Wizard Lynden has become increasingly ambitious and you now enjoy plenty of lavish photos taken by our photographer, Paul Shelley, especially to go with the text and she even includes some attachments to lead you on to other items of potential interest.

This weeks’ duet from ‘Coronation of Poppea’ proved a step too far as it was filmed on a friends iPhone as she was out walking her dog Eddie. It has been a popular email, so popular that it all got “used up” before many of you could view it. I ’m partly to blame because I watched it about twelve times.

Maestro Lynden was undeterred and has learned how to turn it into a piece of U tube footage which is attached to this email. She has done brilliantly thanks too, go to her daughter Lex who helped her out (does this sound familiar?)

Bravo to them both.

THE STING IN THE TAIL
gets much more painful.

GRADE II listed Queen Caroline’s Temple, the site of the performance, has been further vandalised and has now become a target for serious and persistent incidents of criminal damage and graffiti over the last four weekends.

Today (26th October) manager Andy Williams told me that both Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park are facing a wave of this type of activity which they’ve rarely had to cope with in the past.

The police are being very proactive and recently arrested four very young youths. However, the following day there was still more damage and with great regret Andy has decided to have the Temple fenced off for a short break. This is to challenge the current patterns of behaviour, to emphasise the importance of the Temple and it will give the police a little more “grip” in dealing with anybody who decides to climb the fence.

He is very sad to have to make this decision. It runs counter to how he tries to manage Kensington Gardens with free access to heritage assets.

In August and September, he told me, he had 24 separate graffiti incidents (much of it offensive) across the whole park, which has cost £2,500 to put right.

Enjoy the music and don’t forget we are trying to find out who these lovely singers are.
click here to listen

Please click on the link below:

Sue Price
Chairman