Hobbit Mastersingers

Saturday afternoon, B had about 20 friends in the conservatory to celebrate her birthday with tea and homemade cakes. B had made the cakes on Friday and Saturday morning and I pitched in with sandwich making, Of course, we had too much food. We had to get everyone out by 4 o'clock as we had tickets for the opera.

Our local arty cinema, Cityscreen in York, was screening a live broadcast of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg" from The Metropolitan Opera in New York, It was wonderful, six hours of beautiful singing and playing of Wagner's music, James Levine conducting from a wheelchair. I had teary eyes on several occasions.

On Sunday we decided to stay at home. Whilst snacking on leftovers, we watched two films:-

First - "The Hobbit ; An Unexpected Journey", then after a short break:

Second -"The Hobbit ; The Desolation Of Smaug".

We watched the two films because on Monday evening we went back to Cityscreen to see the final film in Peter Jackson's Middle Earth mega-vision, "The Hobbit ; The Battle Of The Five Armies; The Defining Chapter". Marvellous. We loved it. A fitting ending to the six film LOTR and Hobbit series.

Thinking about this marathon series of films, in one way I'm glad it is finished, six middle earth films is enough, in another way I'm sad because this is fantastic story telling. We will be returning to Cityscreen to see the film again, then buying the blu-ray boxed set when it is released.

What next for Peter Jackson? B wants him to tackle Asimov's Foundation series of books. I think he's probably had enough of large scale films with lots of CGI, I think he'll choose a couple of romcoms.