The joys of June

My luck at Ascot last Tuesday with a couple of good winners - Henry the Navigator and Full House - and a sunny day, did not continue for the rest of the week. First, there was the Drama of the Retina and then, on Saturday, grey skies loomed for The Magic Flute at the Grange (www.grangeparkopera.co.uk/article.php?id=19&subsection=32), our local equivalent of Glyndebourne. The performance directed by Stephen Medcalf was wonderful. Pheasants and the flute flew across a gauze curtain, hounds from hell bayed from the backdrop, there was fire and brimstone and terrific singing by Victoria Joyce, Queen of the Night, and Elizabeth Atherton, Pamina. The star of the show was David Stout who played Papageno. Not only were his singing and diction first-rate (the production was in English) but he had an excellent sense of comedy. Mozart would have been proud. The drizzle did not provide the ideal conditions for a summer picnic in the interval and we decamped inside the portico at the front where we enjoyed coronation chicken, salads, strawberries and champagne in spite of the cool breeze. We gathered spare tables and chairs and the picnic rugs served well as insulation around the knees.