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Manchester International Festival: Day 15

• Richard Fair
• 12 Jul 07, 09:07 AM

As was billed as a 鈥榰nique family concert鈥� I thought I鈥檇 take one the family along for the ride. That ride turned out to be forty minutes in the car listening to Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. Loud. 鈥淒id he just sing the F word?鈥�, 鈥淵es鈥�, 鈥淏ut I let you go to see them in concert鈥�, 鈥淵es! Thank-you Dad鈥�. What must other parents think of me?

By the time seven o鈥檆lock came round my ears were begging me to listen to something a little gentler and so we took our seats in the Bridgewater Hall. 鈥淒on鈥檛 expect any of that bad language in here, young lady. This is a family film, so let鈥檚 sit quietly and watch the little fox at play.鈥� Several killings later, and I knew they were dead as the hens had crosses for eyes, a whisper came into my ear, 鈥淭his is great鈥�.

What we were watching was the animated tale of The Cunning Little Vixen accompanied by Manchester鈥檚 Halle Orchestra playing the score before our very ears. It soothed them with a faultless performance. But there was more to come.

I got the impression from all the advertising that the Cunning Little Vixen was the star of the evening鈥檚 performance, but I was wrong. After a short interval we were back in our seats for a wonderful performance of a new piece called Alphabicycle Order. This was a collection of children鈥檚 poems by Christopher Reid set to music by Colin Matthews. were joined on stage by members of the and along with Henry Goodman who narrated several of the poems.

The half hour piece took us on fantastic voyage through the alphabet from Alphabike to Zagzig. The children in the audience loved it. Their parents loved it. I loved it and so did the offspring. Sadly, not for the first time at the Festival, empty seats were aplenty in the Bridgewater Hall. The whole thing was over by nine, and even on a school night I would have thought that they could have managed a packed house, after all, it鈥檚 what it deserved.

Week Two
And that got me thinking. Here we are in the middle of the second week of the Festival and a bit of the steam seems to have gone out of it. Monkey is a distant memory and even For All The Wrong Reasons holds some pleasant afterthoughts. But the atmosphere has changed. Even the Festival Pavilion has seemed more subdued this week. Is it Festival fatigue, the weather? Or do we need something on the scale of Monkey to take us through the second week? It does feel like it needs a bit of a poke with a stick.

Perhaps the controversy that鈥檚 beginning to surround tonight鈥檚 premier of will spark a bit more excitement for us. If the reports are true, then those that have tickets can expect urinating women and an over stimulated bull. The Manchester International Festival website has gone so far as to publish a :
鈥淭he Festival has undertaken a comprehensive process of risk assessments to establish that the show can proceed safely.
The Festival and its partners have put the safety and welfare of the people and animals working on this production as the highest priority at all times.
The Risk Assessments involve health and safety experts and an independent vet. They look particularly at ensuring that the show is safe in terms of Public Health & Safety and Animal Welfare..
The animals involved in the show are accompanied at all times by experienced animal handlers with the independent vet in attendance. The people working on the show are fully briefed by their managers about the risks and the safety procedures.鈥�
Fortunately junior is off to see Harry Potter.

Blogs
While I was sat in the 1830 Warehouse on Tuesday, the more financially affluent members of society were over at the MEN Arena watching Barbara Streisand (or Streetlamps as my spellchecker would prefer). Some paid up to 拢500 for a ticket. paid considerably less if I鈥檓 any judge of where she was sitting - based entirely on the she took. I suspect she had to have a safety harness on.

is a blogger from London who's been up to see the festival. "For 拢5 you could try a mini portion of strange ice cream, mushy pea sorbet or strawberry and vanilla sundae with olive and leather included."