"Can we have class outside?"

A good chunk of this week was dedicated to cracking on with my translation task for my DYCP. As I said last week, I'd got a bit of a mental block around it, but it turns out that old advice is usually correct. Any words on a page are better than nothing, and I started by simply re-writing the literal translation in my own words. That process helped me to look at the text in a new way and build some ideas for my more poetic translation.

The weather has been very warm, and some may say it's been too much of a good thing. But what a privilege it is to work in a way that means I can lie on the grass in the sunshine while I tinker with word order and emphasis. Much like with my original libretto I was writing in June, this one has come out all in a rush. It took a lot of thinking to get there, but once I got going, it took on its own energy.

I also had my own little class trip this week. As part of my learning, I've booked to see a few shows that might have interesting libretti and Show Number 1 was The Wish Thief in the Linbury and the Royal Opera House. It was marvellous! Written for the Youth Chorus, the story was fast-paced and exciting. It was emotionally rich whilst still feeling very accessible. The music had a folk quality to it, which made it feel very accessible, and the lyrics had a clear but gentle rhyme scheme which gave the whole thing such a wonderful lyrical quality. I wish for more operas like this one.