"Bullfights! Valkyries! True love! On bikes!"
The opera with bikes event in Trafalgar Square went well. First performance a little shaky, but not too bad. Second show went really well. The opera people were very nice, and good sports about it all (and the soprano Rachel Harland was cute). Since Wednesday, my role had been expanded. Now I was to appear in the love duet in my templar outift and "marry" Iain to Bryony . Otherwise, I was ASMing, being a barker (the knight outfit helped draw in a few punters) and holding up cards to introduce each act.
There was probably a bit too much mass riding round in circles, a throwback to the original large-scale plan, but a lot of the set-pieces went quite well. The love duet from Don Giovanni went very well, getting spontaneous applause each time - the whole world loves a lover. The "bullfight" (4X4 vs cycling toreador) did well too - the appearance of a genuine cycle paramedic to revive the 4X4's victim was a nice touch, and they did a good job improvising the 4X4 out of a recumbent bike. The Ride of the Valkyries at the end was quite good fun, though probably a little more so for the cyclists than the audience - plastic viking helmets and axes a go go.
There were pretty good crowds - maybe 100 spectators each time - and at least nobody demanded their money back (oh, wait, it was free...).
The really cool thing was how it gave us a chance to swan around in a public place in the armour and surcoats. Both Iain and I were asked to pose for photos with various tourists, and I even got to flirt a little with a woman who called me "Sir Knight" :-)
We went to the Chandos for beer and a snack after the first performance - pretty good fun to walk in wearing armour and costumes. The barman actually walked past us with our order of toasted sandwiches, then came back muttering to himself; "oh yeah! Knights!"
There was probably a bit too much mass riding round in circles, a throwback to the original large-scale plan, but a lot of the set-pieces went quite well. The love duet from Don Giovanni went very well, getting spontaneous applause each time - the whole world loves a lover. The "bullfight" (4X4 vs cycling toreador) did well too - the appearance of a genuine cycle paramedic to revive the 4X4's victim was a nice touch, and they did a good job improvising the 4X4 out of a recumbent bike. The Ride of the Valkyries at the end was quite good fun, though probably a little more so for the cyclists than the audience - plastic viking helmets and axes a go go.
There were pretty good crowds - maybe 100 spectators each time - and at least nobody demanded their money back (oh, wait, it was free...).
The really cool thing was how it gave us a chance to swan around in a public place in the armour and surcoats. Both Iain and I were asked to pose for photos with various tourists, and I even got to flirt a little with a woman who called me "Sir Knight" :-)
We went to the Chandos for beer and a snack after the first performance - pretty good fun to walk in wearing armour and costumes. The barman actually walked past us with our order of toasted sandwiches, then came back muttering to himself; "oh yeah! Knights!"