Our Visits

“A full-on weekend”

From Canons Ashby, a Tudor manor house in Northamptonshire, to the opulent splendour of Brighton Pavilion, and on to the wonderful arts and crafts home of the Beale Family at Standen House – “A creative masterpiece furnished by Morris and Co.”  It was as one of our members said, “A full on weekend”.  The main feature of our three-day trip was to visit Glyndebourne to see, “La Traviata”.  No longer do the heroines stride across the stage like a galleon in full sail, looking far too robustly healthy for audiences to even vaguely consider that they are dying of consumption.  Our Violetta, played by Italian Soprano Elisa Verzier, gave a heartbreaking performance of the doomed party girl.  Whip thin, but with a wonderful voice.  At the end, our party furtively dabbed away the odd tear.  One of our group said, “the opera itself was the icing on the cake – I will never forget it.”  After the opera, we had supper at the theatre.  The food was good, as was the organisation by the Glyndebourne team. 

We had set off at 6.30 am on Saturday October 19, arriving back in Samlesbury at around 7.30 on the Monday evening. The coach had then taken Fylde members on for the last leg of their journey.  Although we had only been away for two nights, it had seemed much longer, as we had packed so much in to our three days.  The only question, at the end was, “Where are we going next?”