After quickly checking in, we were off, with tickets, to view the Hockney Exhibition at the Royal Academy, Burlington House in Piccadilly.
It was a stunning exhibition of extraordinary size and scope as well as some pioneering work on a traditional aspect of art - landscape. Some of the pictures were wonderful ... evocative, beautifully descriptive of light, statute like sentinels of trees looking stately, grand yet comforting and familiar. I love the critique from The Sabotagetimes - see http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/stuff-the-critics-hockneys-bigger-picture-exhibition-is-magnificent.
Here's an extract .... Stuff The Critics, Hockney’s Bigger Picture Exhibition Is Magnificent by Dave Lee ... The critics may have been sniffy about this show (and they are undoubtedly know much more about art than a mere Yorkie pleb like me) but I was overwhelmed by the images I saw. Strip away all the critical one-upmanship, the ‘place in the history of art’ debate and you are left with a 74 year old bloke standing in all weathers in a muddy field turning out some of the most vivid, exciting, extraordinary, enervating, life-affirming art works in the world. Imagine if that was your granddad. How proud would you be of the 'owld git'? This show utterly overwhelmed me. It changed the way I look at my home county forever and I believe it will define the way the world perceives the Yorkshire Wolds, in much the same way that the Impressionists utterly defined the way we look at France. Critics be damned. Sewell be stuffed. A Bigger Picture is a magnificent tour-de-force by a supremely talented artist.
We had a less than enjoyable meal at The Gallery in Fortnum & Masons ... it was probably the ground floor cafe in fairness ... and I was unwell - without an appetite - and Margaret was not hungry.
Went to Royal Haymarket Theatre to see 'The Lion In Winter', starring Robert Lindsay & Joanna Lumley. Written by James Goldman this production was directed by Trevor Nunn.
Set during Christmas 1183 at Henry II of England's château in Chinon, Anjou, Angevin Empire, the play opens with the arrival of Henry's wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he has had imprisoned since 1173. The story concerns the gamesmanship between Henry, Eleanor, their three surviving sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John, their guest, Philip II of France (the son of Eleanor's ex-husband, Louis VII of France), and Philip's half-sister, Alais, who has been at court since she was betrothed to Richard at age 8, but has since become Henry's mistress. It's all fictional - there was not a Christmas Court at Chinon in 1183; it's implied that Henry imprisoned Eleanor for attempting to overthrow him, but, in fact, she was imprisoned for backing their son Henry in the Revolt of 1173–1174. Also there is no definitive evidence that Alais was Henry's mistress (although Richard later resisted marrying Alais on the basis of this claim). The real Henry had many mistresses as well as several illegitimate children. None of the dialogue and actions are historical, although the outcomes and the events leading up to the story are accurate.
25th January. Next morning we had breakfast in the room, then off to The National Gallery, with tickets for Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, described as a once-in-a-lifetime show it was superb. Here's a critic from Laura Cumming in The Observer, Sunday 13 November 2011 ...is a revelation from first to last. It contains more than half of all the surviving paintings, so fragile and rare, begged and borrowed from around the world. These are sparely presented, one or two to a room, and with lighting superbly matched to that of the pictures themselves, with their pale figures looming out of the darkness like night creatures, held fast in knife-edge contours and sealed off by an almost alien perfection. The show is dazzling, mysterious and disturbing.
For me the so called Burlington House Cartoon or The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist a drawing in charcoal & black and white crayon on tinted paper, has always been possibly the best work of art in the world, seen always every time I went to the National and so here again commanded quite a bit of my attention. Margaret and I had seen Lady with an Ermine (reputed to be Cecilia Gallerani) in Krakow (see above). So on balance I think 'La belle ferronnière' loaned by the Musée du Louvre, was the stand out picture. 
We then set off by tube to Notting Hill Gate and The Ledbury. 
Quote from TIME OUT - There are few chefs that produce a set menu of dishes that you want to try as much as their à la carte, but (…) Brett Graham, an Australian in the quiet achiever mould - does so as a matter of routine. This makes securing a table at lunchtime as difficult as snaring one for dinner, despite the edge-of-Notting Hill location. End of extract of quote.
The amuse bouche was lovely … a bite size ginger nut biscuit with foie gras parfait, diced liver and chives. For starters Margaret had a pretty plate of three types of beetroot and a “cigar” of goat’s cheese. I had a pale green and white plate of small, fresh diver-caught scallops (raw) with a fluffy pile of frozen horseradish.Our main course was similar – we both plumped for the black chicken, which I enjoyed with a glass of Syrah. By the time superb desserts came we were full but the sorbets = rhubarb, mango and pear was heavenly. The olive oil panacotta with poached pear and a
pear granita was gorgeous. The warm vanilla beignets were super. Margaret had coffee with hot milk and water on the side with pretty petits-fours including an earl grey macaroon and fennel marshmallow?!
I had to content myself with a glass of sauterne.
Service was friendly and accurate. In all a fantastic meal and experience.
Back to the hotel and a rest (!) then out for 'Legally Blonde'. Legally Blonde: The Musical at the Savoy Theatre. Best described by this review from Charles Spencer in the 'Daily Telegraph' about the time when the show opened Jan 2010.OMIGOD! I tried, I really tried to hate this show, but resistance is futile. It’s going to be a huge hit and if you’re a chap, your wife or girlfriend is almost certain to drag you along. You might as well give in gracefully now. I must admit that I was looking forwards to putting the boot into Legally Blonde. Haven’t we had more than enough stage musicals lazily hitching a ride on already successful movies? And the first 25 minutes of the film which I somehow endured was so girly, so inane, so pink that I felt as if I were being force-fed candyfloss. But the theatre has worked a strange alchemy. The stage show has its tongue in its cheek throughout, it knows it is ridiculous and infantile, and celebrates the fact with knowing wit. Then there’s the bonhomie of the audience, clearly up for a good time on a freezing cold evening and responding to the action like a bunch of overgrown school-kids, delivering “oohs” of astonishment at the plot twists and appreciative gurgles of delight when a buff bloke arrives on stage. This is rom-com with a welcome touch of irony. For those not in the loop, I’d better explain that the plot concerns a spoilt dizzy blonde from Malibu, Elle Woods, who is studying “fashion merchandising” at UCLA. She is far more interested, however, in her
boyfriend, and when, on the night she’s expecting him to propose, he actually dumps her because she’s too low-rent and he’s moving on to a serious life at Harvard Law School, she is first distraught, then determined to follow him there. Well, you’ll guess what happens. She and her cute chihuahua (this is a big show for dogs – there’s also a splendid British bulldog) are initially cold-shouldered by the Ivy League snobs. But Elle eventually finds her stride, takes on a murder case and gets her man – though it isn’t the man she was initially chasing. Director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell keeps it all light, fast, fun and frothy, and there are some terrific dance routines, not least when Elle presents herself to the Harvard professors with a full supporting company of cheer-leaders. Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin’s score is efficient rather than inspired, with no one number that brings the house down and lingers in the memory, though there are some enjoyable shafts of wit in the lyrics. ( .... ) Among feel good musicals, Legally Blonde is right up there with Mamma Mia! and Hairspray.
A great end to a super two days.
