Opera stars

Here's something to keep you up to date

Ian Griggs in the Independent tells us that slimmer and more active opera stars are bringing back the crowds. Here is his list

Marina Poplavskaya, 30
Russian soprano. Appeared as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' at the Royal Opera House in March and replaced Anna Netrebko as Donna Anna in 'Don Giovanni'. Briefly married to the US bass baritone Robert Hale, with whom she remains friends. Her voice has been described by critics
as 'turbocharged'.

Danielle de Niese, 29
US soprano, born in Australia. Appeared as Cleopatra in Handel's 'Giulio Cesare' at Glyndebourne in 2005 and returned there this year in the title role in Monteverdi's 'L'Incoronazione di Poppea'. Seen by some
directors as the great hope for connecting with a young audience.

Jonas Kaufmann, 39
German tenor. Appeared as Jose in 'Carmen' at the Royal Opera House in 2006 and as Alfredo in 'La Traviata' at the Metropolitan in New York. Described by critics as the finest tenor his country has produced in 50
years.

Anna Netrebko, 36
Russian soprano. Appeared as Donna Anna in 'Don Giovanni' in 2002 and, last year, as Susanna in 'Le Nozze di Figaro'.

Erwin Schrott, 36
Uruguayan bass baritone who played title role in 'Le Nozze di Figaro'. Has just had a baby boy with his partner Netrebko.

Deborah Voigt, 47
US soprano whose weight, then 25 stone, prevented her playing title role in 'Ariadne on Naxos' in 2004 at the Royal Opera House. Is now 16 stone
and has returned to the role.

I have Netrbko and she is simply too powerful a singer, swept me off my feet

Palm Tree Fruit

I shamelessly trespassed on the privacy of a house in Pulau Tikus by poking my camera uninvited through the fence to steal a picture of a palm tree in the garden. Reason (excuse)? - I had never seen this common palm bearing fruit, which looks like pinang from a distance.

Bananas!

Hamid sent me this photo of a remarkable wild banana with hundreds of bananas on one pod.

Dancing whales

Someone sent to his friends a photo of Chinese trainers training beluga whales to dance. I thought yu might like to see it.

The bungor in bloom

The hot weather has encouraged an unusual profusion of flowers on the Lagerstroemia londonii (bungor) trees, bringing welcome colour to the streets. The former director of the Botanic Gardens Cheang Kok Choy called them the cherry blossoms of Penang. The Gardens have a magnificent tree which outshone even that grand plant in its great days that stood in the garden of Jag-Jit Singh's house in Northam Road. I can't understand why this plant was not included in the list of trees to be planted all over Penang by the State Forest Dept.

Do your friends observe the old custom of bringing presents when visiting? I get them but these days they bring bottles of whisky. There was an difference when a devoted lover of Mozart=s music brought a bunch of grapes.

I was astonished when reading Lee Ban Chen=s collection of articles that our writers in China have been said by a Taiwan editor to be superior to Taiwan and Singapore writers in Chinese.

I see that the Palestine government of one of the most progressive of Arab states has appointed two women to the Shariah court. One interviewed told her interviewer that she had been in anad out of the courts for the past ten years.

As I watched that excellent movie Slumdog Millionaire which exposed the slums of Bombay and the brutality of the police I thought if that film had been made here they=d all be locked up under the ISA

And Louis I have to tell you that all the pictures here were taken using the little digital camera you gave me last year

Golf ball mushroom

The Golf ball has appeared again This time three mushrooms cuddled close together
appeared

Insan

My friend Hamid is doing good work in Batu Pahat among the underprivileged. They put up a show recently and performed Ten Little Indians and Old MacDOnald Had a Farm. Hamid tells me that they know no English and their Malay is poor.

Bees

Tiny little bees (wasps?), no bigger than a fly, were building what looked like a miniature hive on a leaf of my born again rambutan tree. A friend, who is a bird watcher, says the photos are not clear but he thinks they are wasps. I promised that next time I'd use my old fashioned camera instead of this digital thing which is not meant for closeups