Plain English: July 2013 Archives

Donizetti's Don Pasquale has a dramaturgical problem.  The 70-something Pasquale wants to marry and produce heirs, as his young heir-apparent nephew, Ernesto, has refused the arranged marriage proposed for him by his uncle. Pasquale's doctor, Malatesta has nominated himself as Pasquale's marriage-broker, but the woman he proposes is Norina, the young widow who is the secret squeeze of Ernesto. Malatesta introduces her to Pasquale in the guise of being his own sister, Sofronia, who has just left a convent. Norina and Malatesta are in cahoots, planning to trick Pasquale into marriage so that she can immediately lay claim to half the rich old man's property. But they neglect to inform Ernesto of their plot, and chaos ensues. 

Dr Malatesta (Nikolay Borchev), Norina (Danielle de Niese) and Don Pasquale (Alessandro Corbelli). Photo credit Clive Barda

Very recently the UK Border Agency refused visas to visit Britain to one of the curators of the Shubbak festival, an annual celebration in London of modern Arab arts. Also vetoed were visas for two authors from Gaza. Earlier this year, said Boyd Tonkin of The Independent (on 29 June), "a deal-hungry literary agent from Turkey, guest of honour at the London Book Fair" was denied entry to Britain.

            The UKBA's latest stunt is to refuse a visa to a young woman coming to attend the 32^nd annual Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery, of which I am the chair. The Symposium meets from 5-7 July at St Catherine's College, Oxford, and the theme it will discuss this year is "Food and Material Culture." Among the plenary speakers are Joan Smith, giving the third Jane Grigson Memorial Lecture, and Bee Wilson, talking about the subject from the standpoint of her new book, Consider the Fork. The guest chef this year is Stevie Parle of the Dock Kitchen in London.  The would-be Symposiast is a Southeast Asian studying in one of the European Union countries.

Oxford