Every so often I go to see an opera.  I'm not sure whether that's in order to reinforce my gut feeling that I don't particularly like opera or in the hope of a Damascene conversion.  Scottish Opera's The Marriage of Figaro leant towards support of a take it or leave it attitude.  It was very nice but very long, too long.  The Lyceum despatched the story much more expeditiously when they did Beaumarchais' play a few years ago with the inimitable Jimmy Chisholm as Cherubino.  But then in a play the characters say a line once and move on whereas in opera they have a habit of singing a line half a dozem times before the lights come up on the surtitles again with a fresh bit of text.

Charlie Parker was renowned for the number of notes he could get into a short space of time.  He'd have had no bother getting through Mozart's entire score before the first interval.  The SNJO players at their concert of Parker pieces were up to the challenge.  It was a super gig.  I enjoyed it all but tops was Tommy Smith's solo on My Little Suede Shoes.

Parker was also famous for the amount of time and effort he put into his practice.  That clearly contributed to his success but according to a note in the programme he wasn't always successful in his early years.  At one jam session he had to leave the stage because he lost track of the chord changes while improvising.  It's reassuring to know I have such an illustrious forerunner.  Must point that out to my teacher.

The second play in the Lyceum's season is Jumpy, a woman centred comedy contrasting nicely with their opening woman centred play, The Suppliant Women.  The play revolves around the relationship between fiftyish mother and fifteenish daughter with a supporting cast of man hungry female friend, dull but dependable husband, daughter's boyfriend of few words, his on the brink of separating parents and daughter's teenage pregnant chum plus a full frontal twenty something chap.

Like all the best comedies it's both hilarious and moving. An evening spent watching people stumbling through life and reflecting between laughs on how close to one's own experiences it is is never wasted.