My Last Days in London (For Now!) (Pt. 1)

My time in London quickly dwindled. Though I am thankful to have had the time I did and I had plenty of opportunity for theatre, opera, cultural/sightseeing excursions, and wonderful trips to other parts of Europe, 2.5 months is definitely just a brief sojourn, much more so than when I spent 4 months in Vienna. Still, I managed to cram a ton into my last couple weeks in London. I'm adding photos here and some comments about my activities just going down in order of the notes I took, since I knew it would be a while (about 1.5 months!) before I could get around to writing everything. I'm breaking the post up into three parts so as to cut load times and make it more manageable.

One activity for my class British Life & Culture was to go to a football (soccer, for American readers) match. Ours was in the Championship League between QPR and Charlton Athletic. It was an exciting match and QPR won the day decisively, with offense that constantly kept the pressure on Charlton and didn't allow them any opportunity to reverse the tide. Our group went in face paint and made up cheers like "We are QPR, QPR we are," which won unfavorable looks from the crowd around us. We definitely brought a kind of American sports attitude to the game that was not really fitting with the culture there, despite Britons' intensity about football.

I had gone the the National Portrait Gallery earlier in the term but a portion of it was closed for a private function. I returned this time to see that section, and I'm glad I did. I got to see famous pictures of both Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. I was soon to have a rush of my own cultural adventures, though. I had some difficulty arranging scheduling so I could make it to all the remaining professional main stage opera productions at the ROH and ENO while I was there. I finally worked it out and in one morning picked up all the remaining tickets that I needed (waiting in line at ROH and buying them straight out from ENO). I had a sense of glee about that. So happy it all worked out. I think that was an important moment for me personally because it so confirmed my love of the art form and the pains to which I have gone in Vienna and London to see high-quality live opera. Here below are photos first of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden (with a photo of Covent Garden itself) and then of the London Coliseum, where English National Opera performs. I have so many pictures of the Vienna opera house and a smattering of others I thought I better catalogue these two, as well!

My frequent standing spot

A final meal at a favorite restaurant (even though a chain and culturlaly Italian, not British) before a final opera 

Also... great to have Walkers shortbread cookies so close to Scotland (and designed for the holidays, no less!!)

Somewhere during all this I dropped by Picadilly Circus too...

Opera, though, was not my only contact with theatre. Because of my theatre class I still had three more productions to attend.  The first was at the National Theatre, an impressive but unusual architectural monolith with a great mainstage theatre that was putting on a play version of the children's story Emil and the Detectives. I honestly slept through much of it but my general sense was it had great ideas but was too confused about whether it was a musical or a play. As someone in my class put it, though, the space around the National Theatre by the Thames, especially at night when we were there, gives the awe-inspiring feeling of "Wow. I'm in London."

My last two shows were a piece called Mucky Kid and the pantomime Puss in Boots. Mucky Kid dealt with the treatment of mental illness in Britain, with many mentally ill youths committing crimes and being locked up with the key thrown away even if they have been treated for their illness and might function in society. The work was based on a real story and was show in a pub theatre. It was interesting because while there were some flaws in the writing, clichés such as cyclical, multiple viewpoint story telling, and the design was necessarily bare but bizarre, I was very moved by it. Because of a personal relationship with someone dealing with many of the same issues as the main character and using many of the same mannerisms, I was able to identify with her plight. The actress playing that role was able to touch on the mannerisms of people with those issues, even if the overall arc of the story wasn't as powerful as it could be. Though Emil and the Detectives was also a bit lighter, after weeks of heavier fare it was great to see the light-hearted, quintessentially British pantomime Puss in Boots, which had all the trappings of its genre, such as cross-dressing dame, but cast Puss and Jamaican and threw in some other twists. While I was very glad to see this bit of British culture, I admit I could've done with about a third of the length.

Theatre wasn't the only thing that classes with FIE through the Lawrence London Centre brought me. I had a fun final couple of weeks not only discussing in theatre class but also in British Life & Culture and finishing up some interesting final papers. Wrapping up my internship was also a major component of this. I got in a few more critical hours working for Alva group and then had the opportunity to see deeper into their business processes, which was a lot of fun. Finally, through the Lawrence London Centre and its director, we had an all-American Thanksgiving. Now, I'm not a big Thanksgiving fan, especially since I don't watch football and the only Thanksgiving food I really like is turkey. I was really glad we did this, though. I pulled together some cheese, apricots, bread, and jelly and made my signature appetizer. It was great though to have everyone together, in the director's house, eating, having a good time, and even watching football. There was also a session of circling up and saying what people were grateful for and a few people cried. A bit much but also kind of touching. So a good tradition to have in the program.

After this point, my sightseeing began in earnest in a concentrated, whirlwind week. My first journey was back to Trafalgar Square to truly explore it and say I had been there. I was fascinated by the blue chicken that inhabited one pedestal opposite where a general atop a horse sits across the square. It was also neat to see the menorah being lit as Hannukah progressed. I thought there was a great juxtaposition with this and the lit church across the square. Another highlight was seeing the Canadian embassy, which is now so close to our family since we were just living in Canada and also the roots of my mother's family. Otherwise, the square is a square, but with great views of London and impressive monuments itself.

Because that National Gallery is on Trafalgar Square, that was my next stop. Its balcony was a great vantage for photos of the square and of London, but those photos can't compare with the artistic depictions contained inside. I made a long list of all the artists I saw and a few reactions to the works, which I will detail here, but for those not interested, feel free to skip ahead.

Titian, Raphael, Bronzino, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Vernoese, El Greco, van Eyck, Boticelli, Dürer, Rembrandt, Poussin, van Dyck, Velazques, Rubens, Constable, Delacroix, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Picasso, Canaletto, Gaugin, Van Gogh

Some artists, like Michelangelo, were represented by only one work while for some many pieces were in the museum. The wealth of art was amazing, however. Here are some specific notes on things I found especially fascinating (and a few more artists for the list:

My best attempt at a night shot of Big Ben
from the steps of the National Gallery

I felt lukewarm about the 16th century art, finding it difficult to appreciate perhaps because of the cultural distance I have from that time period. I was also surprised that not all of the artwork from that time period represented the "Rubenesque" ideal for the female form. My disconnect with this time period was particularly interesting given that while I was also disconnected from the 13th-15th century art, I could appreciate its simplicity and religiosity as an artifact of a different time, whereas the 16th century art felt just like a less-developed version of later styles. Da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks was quite the sight, as any Da Vinci painting is. Apparently there is another work by the same name in the Louvre, but I can't recall if I saw it. There are a lot of different comments on this work and it's fun to read up about it. Looking at Rembrandt portraits it was great that the National Gallery had enough of the artist's works to truly see how his style progressed over time and how the portraiture changed. Two artists whose works I appreciated seeing but whose most famous work was not in the museum were Hyacinthe Rigaud, famous for his portraits of Louis XIV (the most famous of which is in the Getty and I still really want to see), and Caspar David Friedrich, famous for Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer, held at the Kunsthalle Hamburg and probably my favorite painting (which I also have yet to see in person!). Three final notes: Seeing another representation of Monet's pond full of waterlilies, this time outside of Paris, was awe-inspiring, though I still have come to appreciate even more some of the best works of Pissarro. It was intriguing to see a painting by Bernini, who is so much more famed for his sculpture. Lastly, I gained a lot of respect for J.M.W. Turner, whose sea scenes are close to my heart as a sailor and from a family who loves sailing even more than I do. In studying his work I was also inspired by the dramatic transition over the course of his career from High Romantic landscape painting to almost Impressionistic "landscape" painting. I would actually argue it really does make the jump to Impressionism. One room holds his works with those of Claude, whom he greatly admired (although whose work was definitely more similar to Turner's earlier rather than later style).

Next up - Natural History Museum, some churches, and then onto my final weekend!