Village life has almost passed us by since we first started weekending, now almost weeking here. Lots of reasons for this, none very good, but things seem to be slowly changing.

A few weeks ago we were asked if we like opera, because opera is coming to town. Yes I said. Where will it be? The village hall. The village hall? Two doors away, I know it well, as it hosts the weekly market stalls on a Friday. But opera?

Images of Covent Garden, black tie and slinky evening gowns crossed my mind, but back to reality. What’s the opera? Carmen. Yes. Ok. I know it, from a performance in 1972 in Łódź, (moustachioed female conductor (conductress?) who sang along to the choons) and from Carmen Jones at the Old Vic, in the 1980s. Anyway, I was intrigued, and booked tickets.

Oops. They were almost sold out. I had to join Cookham Society and fill in some forms and then two seats were mine.

Included was paella! And an exhortation to wear appropriate (to the opera) clothing. No black tie or evening gown then. Perhaps a rose in my hair or just something red and black. My full flamenco outfit is at the dry cleaners, or otherwise I would have. (really?)

It starts at 7. It’s cold. Very cold. I opt for black trousers and a red jumper. Jangly earring. But we only have to go two doors down. Snaking queue outside the village hall. We join it. Finally we are given a programme and a glass of something fizzy by a very glamorous lady in full evening décolleté regalia and we find our seats.

Now the hall is not big. Yet somehow three long tables arranged down the whole length of it, beautifully decorated with vases of red roses were enough to fit us all. I won’t say very comfortably but comfortably enough.

We were very fortunate to have seats near the stage.

You can see in the photo that it is a very small stage. Smaller than the average primary school hall.

The atmosphere in the hall is very friendly. Most people are, to put it kindly, at the older end of middle aged, just like us, so we fit in very well. We buy red wine and introduce ourselves and begin to enjoy. The paella arrives. It’s been cooked on the premises, I believe, in a two metre diameter paellera. It has artichokes in it, among other things. Delicious. We finish eating and the music starts.

Rogue Opera is a small company. Here we were introduced to five of them. A superb pianist who played throughout. We knew all the tunes of course (so did he). It was bit like watching a silent movie and listening to the Wurlitzer organ in days gone by. Perhaps not quite, because the singers, who sang in French and raced through the story in English, were marvellous. All four of them. The mezzo, Carmen, had the most amazing voice, but it was her acting that really impressed. We were sitting right at the front, totally mesmerised. The soprano, playing the pious Micaela, had a truly angelic voice. You could almost believe that her innocent love and devotion to the bewitched Don Jose would conclude with a happy end. But the dastardly Don Escamillo, Captain Morales and Dancaire (3 for the price of one!) had a baritone to die for ( and people did). Matching the great acting of his enchanting Carmen was Don Jose, the tenor.

After the first act was a useful interval. And some very welcome and delicious almond cake. Muy espanol! I can’t work out how to do the upside down exclamation mark or the tilde here. You’ll have to imagine it!

We had time for more wine, more getting to know you chats, and to look at the delightful wall posters. No photos unfortunately but they were simple red silhouettes on a black background of flamenco dancers. Very effective. Oh, and we had little artificial red candles on our tables. Very atmospheric. All the ladies were presented with red fans. Quite a few of us used them, as the hall got very hot. The air conditioning worked well – up to a point.

Act two had a change of backdrop, as did act three. The prop I liked the best was the orange tree, A true flavour of Seville if ever there was one.

Can you tell that I enjoyed the show?

Thank you to everyone who made it so good – the whole thing was so well organised.

It ended with a thunderous encore of toreador, belted out by the cast and the audience. A good time was had by all, I believe, and luckily we did not have far to go home. Thank you for inviting us, M and R, and yes, I’d love to do something like this again! Great fun.