Nixon in China not Orlando The Plumber's Gift not The Mask of Orpheus

Nixon in China, not Orlando; The Plumber's Gift, not The Mask of Orpheus. The composer John Woolrich, when he asked me last year to write a libretto for him, specified that he wanted a fairy-tale: he sees the tradition of opera performance as conjoined with the carnival art of serio ludere (playing seriously), with puppet plays and street games, with conjuring and tumbling, stretching back to travelling players and the commedia dell'arte troupes who were visiting England from Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their art didn't feed foolish and dangerous fantasies, like the romances Cervantes mocked when he inaugurated the modern novel. The comic repertoire of bawdy and magic dramatised man-eating ogres, seven-league boots, caps of invisibility and talking animals in the same breath as it boldly attacked prevailing marriage arrangements, overweening aristocrats and scheming lawyers. Woolrich also stipulated he wanted the theatrical frame to show: the opera should revel in its own artifice and manoeuvres, making a virtue of a restricted budget, so that role-doubling and costume-changes became part of the spectacle. The result, In the House of Crossed Desires, takes stock characters from the commedia tradition, like the wicked old miser and the likely lad on the make, and sets them within a fairy-tale plot that's a freely shaken mixture of several famous stories: aficionados will notice bits of Donkeyskin and Tattercoats, of Rumpelstiltskin and The Sandman, of the Grimms' Mother Holle, Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop and, above all, of The Golden Ass.

Asked by the locals what she was doing, she told them she was on her way to play cricket - and one of them said, "I know you You were on telly. You got a duck."Taylor said, "You remember me then?""Aye, lass. That were a crap shot that were."In the shade under the members' balcony Taylor grinned and said, "Recognition, eh? It makes it all worthwhile."The first test ended in a draw The second test begins in Worcester today at 11am.. Driving to Scarborough on the Saturday before the game, Clare Taylor stopped in the Pigeon Pie on the A64 to watch England play Spain in Euro 96.

David Gower would have been proud of Daniels' cover drives; when Kathryn Leng stayed on through the second morning after Daniels' departure, her 144 was every bit as dashing. "I think," said Shirley Taylor, "if a cricket buff had the advantage of a close-up view, and they could see how much the bowlers do with the ball, and how well the batsmen read it, they'd be very impressed."With Sky on board, that close-up look will now start to be available with sometimes surprising results. Of course the women can't hit the ball as hard as the men, or bowl as fast - Clare Taylor reckons in the men's game, she'd be gentle medium pace - but in a highly technical game, they have all the technique. It's a boring story, it's all been said - it's a private club, and they can do what they like Besides, they've been most friendly and welcoming to us. To play there is an honour and a privilege, every cricketer in the world would want that - so I'd rather there'd been more focus on the actual cricket."The standards of that cricket are high.