Edinburgh Fringe Festival

August was another hectic period - who said retirement is more easy going and relaxing.  

My wife (aka "she who must be obeyed") and I stayed in our flat in Edinburgh 'doing' the Fringe last week.  Of the 1290 performances available during the festival we managed ten.  Some wonderful productions with Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Ophelia' from Hamlet plus Alexander McCall Smith's 'The World According to Bertie' being very good indeed.  The clear winner for me was Ian Hardy's powerful, nay faultless, performance in 'The Trials of Galileo' written by Nic Young. 

On the liturgical front there was of course Bishop Gilbert's ordination in Aberdeen as one highlight (see previous post).  Also my participation in The St. Margaret Schola singing Vespers each Saturday evening and Compline by candlelight on Sunday night at St. Mary's Cathedral  Edinburgh throughout August.  Once again the format during Vespers was two choirs singing, one polyphonic and the other (us) Gregorian chant with congregational numbers of +/- 100. Each Compline comprised of chanting a different usage: Benedictine, Roman, Cistercian and Dominican.  Attendance was good at around 50 for Compline (at 9pm on wet and windy Sunday nights we adjudged those very good numbers).  The highlight of our contribution to the fringe this year was Couperin's Messe pour les Paroisses on Friday 26th.

Next month it is back to salmon fishing to "chill out" for a week or two.