A S H Smyth › ‘Beauty retire’ – or; Some notes on a portrait of Samuel Pepys

Skip to content

Tag Archives: opera

‘Beauty retire’ – or; Some notes on a portrait of Samuel Pepys

Monday, April 20, 2020

The odd (and possibly inconsequential) story of Pepys’s portrait, his song, and his relationship with Mrs Knepp. — For The Critic

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged composition, Elizabeth Knepp, fire, friends, health, John Hayls, music, National Portrait Gallery, Oliver Cromwell, Pelham Humfrey, portraits, Royal Navy, Samuel Pepys, sex, singing, The Athenaeum, The Critic, the Royal Society, William Davenant, women | Comments (0)

Subterranean Homesick Baroque – after Dylan

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Johnny’s in the basement, mixing up the medicine. I’m on the toilet, downloading Handel operas.

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged (after), Bob Dylan, GF Handel, micro-non-fiction, music, pharmacy, Pikey Laureate, the internet | Comments (0)

Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy Bluffer’s Guide

Monday, June 4, 2018

Last weekend I played host to a particularly friendly cricket match – by which I mean that both teams had no clue what they were doing. The opposition, Rain Men, were captained by my friend and usual team-mate Simon, whose excuse was that he’d only played the game 263 times previously. The other captain was, […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged beer, Bluffer's Guides, Boris Starling, Brexit, cats, conversation, cricket, cycling, Duckworth Lewis, Englishmen, etiquette, fishing, footnotes, Fuller Pilch, girlfriends, golf, Harry Eyres, Haynes Publishing, humour, James Trollope, Jonathan Goodall, Keith Hann, leadership, management, Marcus Berkmann, Mike Brearley, Nick Yapp, Rain Men, Samuel Johnson, Serbo-Croat, social media, South Africans, Susie Boniface, Test Match Special, The Oldie, Town Malling, William Hanson, wine, wisdom | Comments (0)

Tripping hither, tripping thither

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

When I went to the bar as a very young man, it was often enough in the company of the Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. My relationship with G&S had started early, specifically the argument in Three Men in a Boat over which song Harris is trying to sing (I remain confused to this […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged All Souls College, Arcadia, Bletchingdon, Brexit, clowns, comedy, Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, donkeys, drink, English National Opera, fairies, food, French, G Schirmer, Greek, Grenadier Guards, Holywell Music Room, Iolanthe, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jerome K Jerome, Kazakhstan, ketamine, Latin, law, librettos, Mount Ararat, music, Oxford University, Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, plebs, politics, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Savoy Theatre, sex, shepherds, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir William Schwenk Gilbert, the Conservative Party, the House of Lords, the Liberal Party, The Oldie, The West Wing, voice, women | Comments (0)

I ink, therefore I am

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

On the choice and acquisition of my one and only tattoo. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, Anthony McGowan, army, Asterix, buffalos, Classics, Cleopatra, Egyptology, Elizabeth Taylor, gladiators, Greek, Latin, men, mothers, Oxford, Rome, Russell Crowe, Samoan, sewerage, South Africa, SPQR, tattoos, The Oldie, war | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 30, 2017

. The Queen won a first prize for bantams at the King’s Lynn Fur and Feather Society’s show. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 6 1909 . In LA there is a chess set designed for the East India Company, featuring Sikh soldiers vs Afghans. Among a certain kind of people, being ‘passionate about Israel/Palestine’ […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged (il)literacy, Afghans, bantams, birds, Bobby Kennedy, Brett Dean, butter, chess, Communism, cricket, death, Django Reinhardt, education, England, finance, Germany, government, Iceland, Israel, King Alfred, King's Lynn, liberal arts, Los Angeles, music, Nelson Evening Mail, Palestine, politics, queens, Rain Men, sailors, Sam Craft, sea-faring, sex, Sikhs, South Benfleet, tattoos, the East India Company, Tierra del Fuego, traffic, Truth, work, WWII | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, September 18, 2017

. Our Eastern allies have just spent £2,000,000 in equipping a Government steel works. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 8 1908 . Ben Stokes is the sixth Englishman to have his name on the honours boards at Lord’s for both batting and bowling. The smell of hot food is not very common on building sites. Annalise was […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Afrikaners, America, Anne Watson, arachnids, Australians, Ben Stokes, Benjamin Britten, Brexit, cricket, death, drink, finance, food, government, hair, Iceland, Leonard Bernstein, life, London, Lord's, manufacturing, Neighbours, Nelson Evening Mail, penises, Peter Grimes, Reading, Sebastian Faulks, South Africa, steel, the Bible, the Chinese, the EU, the Irish, the NHS, the Nile, train-travel, TV, work | Comments (0)

A complete list of all those who have gone fishing, according to Benjamin Britten

Sunday, February 5, 2017

1) Old Joe 2) Young Joe 3) You Know

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged Benjamin Britten, fishing, micro-non-fiction, Montagu Slater, The Pikey Laureate | Comments (0)

I’ll play along (after Da Ponte)

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

You wanna dance, you little count? You wanna dance? If you really wanna dance then I’ll dig out the banjo. Why not? I’ll play along with you. If you wanna learn how I’ll even show you the moves: I could teach you a thing or two. I will, I will – I promise! But gently […]

Filed in Poetry, Translation | Also tagged Da Ponte, Dominic Hilton, Figaro, Italian, libretto, Mozart, music | Comments (0)

La Fille du régiment

Friday, April 20, 2012

Donizetti’s silliness at the ROH, reviewed. — For theartsdesk

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Ann Widdecombe, Donizetti, music, Royal Opera House, Switzerland, the French, theartsdesk | Comments (0)