Dior uses real Flowers as set

Telegraph

The House of Dior has come up with an original idea. It is using over one million real flowers to decorate the rooms where the fashion parade is being shown. A highly original and expensive idea.

In theory the use of millions of flowers sounds wonderful but the reality judging from the photos leaves a lot to be desired. The result looks something of an overkill. Too many flowers too close together  looks awful. 


Flowers are like people. To be appreciated properly a person has to be treated as an individual. In a crowd the person who stands out is the person who is given the most space. The Queen is always presented with lots of room around her even when her subjects are crowded together. Although she is not the most beautiful person or indeed the cleverest she is the one that stands out.

Imagine millions of Queens wearing a crown all crowded together! Mind boggling!

A single red rose can be stunningly beautiful but the room of millions of red roses is overpowering and uncomfortable.

Original idea? No. I did this 30 years ago for a production of Gilbert and Sullivan. The First Act was all real flowers. The production only had to last for 6 days and the flowers just made it. Sad as it is in weekly rep all the old scenery gets dumped. The flowers looked beautiful but some members of cast and audience had hay fever!

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 1 To Wander by Janette Miller

Here as promised is the first chapter of my novel. There is a prologue which I have omitted. The book is based on the Schubert song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. There are 24 songs and 24 chapters. The cycle tells a tale of a three sided love triangle. It ends in tragedy. A CD of the songs accompanies the book and is already available on iTunes.

The Beautiful Miller’s Maid 

Song One – To Wander Die Schöne Müllerin Schubert

It became necessary to hunt for a few little girls again to sing alongside the boys in The Pied Piper. The girls parts would be small, just a couple of solo lines. This did not stop Simon King from writing some horrible musical lines full of augmented fourths for the poor little girls whereas the boys lines were a piece of cake as Simon knew how to write for young male voices.

It was decided in desperation and as a last resort to audition girls from the local London Professional Arts Schools of which there were three. These schools were actually ballet schools providing child ballet dancers for the Royal Ballet which would not allow children from its own school on stage at this time, along with children for musicals and television. Some of the little ballet dancers had singing lessons.

If the girls could handle one line and were small they would do at a pinch. Naturally more trouble was taken with the boys, as they would have the major parts.

One morning in April Simon, without Trevor who could not bring himself to be present on this occasion although wild horses would not have stopped him being at every audition when young boys where involved, found himself in a small room in a Regency House in Hyde Park listening to a selection of young girls from London ballet schools that had already been pre selected by his gay but very creative director Louis Crick. It was not encouraging.

The morning was almost over when a tiny little fourteen year old with mousey hair and a very old singing teacher who was obviously a bit the worse for wear and very nervous entered the room. Simon had made sure that his name was not mentioned to the little girls although the singing teacher knew very well to whom she was about to perform, Britain’s foremost classical composer, and it scared her stiff. Dutch courage has been called for.

The last little girl curtsied, which Simon found vaguely amusing, why didn’t Trevor do that? and started to sing, a sentimental Edwardian song, “The Second Minuet”. She sounded a little nervous and tremulous but her voice was clear and true and she had, something, a special quality and nothing else had aroused any interest that morning and she was small.

The little girl finished curtsied again very prettily and her singing teacher relieved it was all over made haste to collect the music and leave.

“Just a moment” said Mr. King “Have you anything that you could sing a little faster?”

“No I am afraid she hasn’t” said Miss Wakefield, for that was the singing teacher’s name. “I am so sorry”.

The little girl seeing her chance of fame and fortune fading away jumped in with alacrity. “Oh but Miss Wakefield what about “The Fairy Pipers? I can sing that!”

Miss Wakefield gasped in horror. “The Fairy Pipers” was a Victorian musical hall song with double entendre, which had gone unnoticed by a young innocent fourteen year old but Miss Wakefield knew was highly unsuitable for performance to the greatest British living and very gay composer. Miss Wakefield was not going to let her lack of musical taste let her down on such an occasion. She had her standards.

“So sorry I haven’t got the music, come on Antoinette and she pushed Antoinette out of the room.”

“Oh but Miss Wakefield” said an anxious little voice “You always play it from memory!”

Then Simon used all his little boy charm. He was not really interested in this little girl, she could have walked out and he would never have given her another thought but he was bored and decided to try his ‘little boy lost ‘act to see if it would work and it did. Like a charm.

Simon had this ability and charisma to make people fall in love with him almost instantly. It was enchanting and it worked every time on male and female alike. It was hard to resist. Many women in his past had been bowled over by this feat. Lorna Winter was still enthralled. Simon knew he could do it and he secretly enjoyed it. Trevor knew this too and took great care to see any female conquests were disposed of rapidly, even Lorna would go as soon as Trevor could get an opportunity. But Lorna was canny.

“For me” said the little boy lost seductively looking into Miss Wakefield’s eyes, “Just this once?” and Miss Wakefield did. Never in her life had this elderly spinster been looked at in such a fashion. Miss Wakefield’s knees trembled and she caved in graciously. Miss Wakefield’s reward was never to see him again.

What happened next was momentous. Antoinette launched into the musical hall song, which was all about fairy pipers playing about at night with actions. She did the lot with a straight face and totally oblivious to the sexual innuendos. Finishing up with a “Come! Come!” and another curtsey. That’s three already thought Simon. What next?

How Simon and Louis kept a straight face throughout this song will never be known but they did. It must have been hilarious as never before or since has anybody auditioned for Simon King, England’s youngest and famous classical composer with a musical hall song about “fairies” and got away with it.

“Thank you Antoinette” said a shaken Mr. King “That was very nice” and he looked down to see who was to be next. Both of the men were about to explode with laughter and the quicker the elderly woman and the young innocent, mousy girl left the better.

“Excuse me” said a small but attractive speaking voice “But are you Mr. King, the composer of “Henry VIII”?

Mr. King, the said composer looked up in astonishment!

“Yes! Yes I am! How did you know that?”

I recognized you from the photo in the souvenir program. My mother took me to see Henry VIII at Covent Garden in Coronation year and I adored it, may I just say how I love all your ballets. I have seen “The Little Mermaid “Twice” and not to be stopped Antoinette started to sing the “little march”. As this had yet to come out on LP the only way she could have known this was to have seen it and more than once.

Mr. King took a longer look at this funny little thing who had recognized him and knew his “little march!”

“Thank you! Thank you Antoinette! Not many people actually saw that opera. It was not a success. I don’t think even Louis has seen it!”

Louis concurred.

“Come along, Antoinette, you mustn’t speak to Mr. King like that!” said a flushed and bewildered Miss Wakefield.

Mr. King took another long look at this little girl who had spoken up so knowledgably and he held out his hand to her and shook it with real warmth but he did not bother to look in her eyes as he had done for Miss Wakefield but he was impressed if only for a moment.

Antoinette curtsied yet again, smiled and deliberately caught Simon's eye with a cheeky little grin as if to say, “I’m something special!” It was weird. Simon felt that for once someone had enchanted him as he did with others. For a second Simon had fallen under the spell of a fourteen year old child and a girl child at that. He pulled himself together instantly but she had gone.

“I really cannot see what I see in her” remarked Louis “But she is small and can sing in tune. “She’d make a good Phebe with all those curtseys! Only joking! She’d never sing it. Stupid of you to make Phebe’s music so difficult! We’ll never find a child Phebe now!”

Antoinette got the job as she was the best of a bad bunch and there was truly no one else and duly arrived at Churston Devon for ‘The Pied Piper” rehearsals and the 1958 Churston Music Festival.

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 2  part 1  can be found here!

How to Suffer Successfully the Artist's Lot

In Alain de Botton's excellent book How Proust can change Your Life there are a few lines to which I can sadly relate.

It is the Incomprehension of Friends. 

A characteristic problem for geniuses. When Swann's Way was ready Proust sent copies to his friends, many of whom had difficulty opening the envelope.
'Well my dear Louis, have you read my book?' Proust recalled asking the aristocratic playboy, Louis d'Albufera.
'Read your book? You've written a book?' answered his surprised friend.
'Yes of course Louis, and I even sent you a copy.''
'Ah my little Marcel, if you sent me a copy, I've certainly read it. Only I wasn't sure I had received it.'

Another recipient a Madame Gaston de Caillavet was more grateful. She wrote and thanked the author for his gift and in the warmest tones praised the  passages pertaining to First Communion. She reread them often, she said, as it reminded her of her own experiences. If she had read the book she would have noticed that there was no such religious ceremony in it.

Although I am no genius it appears that I have a similar problem. For years I have been writing a novel. It is about the world that I know intimately,  the  world of Benjamin Britten and the Aldeburgh set. Although I was young and a girl and never included as part of the scene nevertheless I was an observer of what went on and in fact I got to know Britten very well. I was 18 and he was 40. He liked me and I liked him. I was intelligent and sharp intellectually. I must have been different. I was no little boy, quite the oposite. His relationship with his partner  Peter Pears intrigued me and his attitude to me surprised me.

I often wondered what would have happened if Britten had been allowed to meet girls of his age when he was 18.  When he was alone with me which was very rarely but enough to get to know him, he behaved as if he were 18. Sadly now I think I was the only 18 year old girl he ever drove home alone. Ah if he had been 18 and not 40 with a partner in tow things might have been different.

So I have written a what if? I am no Jane Austin or Charlotte Bronte or even Agatha Christie but I wanted to know if my effort was readable so I sent a pdf of what I consider an interesting chapter to my friends. Although the book is complete fiction this chapter told of my audition for the greatest living British composer of the age. It was quite an audition. I was 15, a girl and a ballet dancer!

It was only four pages. I sat back and waited. I heard nothing! I eventually bucked up courage and asked one. She was dismissive. 'I am just not interested in that kind of thing' was all I got. Another said that my sentences were too long! It would have been a good criticism if I had actually written a Proustian sentence but I my style is economic with words. I couldn't write a long sentence if I tried.

Another dear friend said he just hadn't found the time. A great disappointment as being in the profession I should have valued his opinion. I thought all would appreciate the comedy of my situation as it is such an insight to a great man.  I was mistaken. Proust and I have much in common.

It seems it is impossible to get one's friends to read one's work.

Perhaps I should put this chapter up on my blog to see if I get any interest. I should warn you the subject matter is delicate but this chapter other than the incongruity of the tale is perfectly innocent.

Tomorrow perhaps?

Isadora Duncan & Frederick Ashton

Tamara Rojo as Isadora Duncan

For most of my life I have not been a fan of Frederick Ashton's choreography. I enjoyed La Fille Mal Gardee but everything else seemed to me to be decidedly third rate. I disliked most of his work and I could and to some extent still can never understand what the fuss about Ashton's choreography is about.

Apart from Fille virtually all his works were designed for Margot Fonteyn who had great charisma but was never an outstanding dancer technically. Her performance relied on her personality which was so spellbinding that she could convince a dustman that she was the finest ballet dancer in the world. This went on for years bolstered by Covent Garden, Ninette de Valois and Fonteyn's mother aided and abetted by Sir Frederick Ashton.

MacMillian who was a truly fine choreographer had to put up with a 45 year old Fonteyn for the first night of Romeo and Juliet even though he had choreographed it for Lynne Seymour. This Fonteyn conspiracy put back the development of British ballet for decades as no other ballerina was given a chance and Ashton was deprived of the dancers who could do justice to his talent. He spent most of his life trying to make an aging Fonteyn look good.

La Fille mal Gardee was an exception as Fonteyn was ill and Ashton had a ballerina Nadia Nerina who had a brilliant balletic technique and for once Ashton could show what he could do. If only he had been allowed to develop.

Over the past ten years a new generation of ballerinas has been let loose on the Ashton choreography and they can actually perform it. These contemporary ballerinas have made me rethink my attitude and in fact some of Ashton's choreography when performed by dancers who are capable of dancing it technically make it look beautiful. 

Tamara Rojo in Isadora is one. Frederick Ashton, aged 18, saw Isadora Duncan perform in Peru and it left a profound impression on him. The short ballet is his recreation of that performance. It is beautiful. In the first waltz one can see where he got the inspiration for the shadow dance in Ondine.


I love Nunez in Ashton's Sylvia and Cojocaro in his Cinderella. They show Ashton's choreography off to its best. I have revised my opinion. Ashton is now very good second rate but he could have been first rate along with MacMillan, Cranko, Nureyev and Murphy. We shall never know what he might have achieved.

Olympic Security Then and Now

Olympic Security or lack of it seems to be the lead story for all the media today. The chosen Security firm seems to have got it wrong and wisely the British Army has been called in to help out and why not? The armed forces are on the taxpayers pay role and are well trained to do an excellent job. 

The media condemnation has been scathing so it is a pity the powers that be did not present the case for the army in a better PR style. The government has taken the only sensible course of action avoiding chaos but perhaps should have presented it in a more positive light. It is a case of doing the right thing but in the wrong way.

After the horror of the Munich Games and to some extent 9/11 security has to be taken into consideration. I am so glad it was not visible at all in 1948 when I attended the Wembley Games at the ripe old age of four. There was little fuss, very little ceremony and yet the whole Games was so memorable even to a tiny child that I have found all other Games lacking.

The Wembley Games were inspiring and held up a spirit of hope that came across in the simplicity of the production. Yes it rained, buckets of rain, England does rain. There was little food and no Olympic Village.  There was no security at all just the normal staff.

Personally I think the UK producers should have planned for a closing roof a la Centre Court at Wimbledon then the rain on the Opening Ceremony problem would not arise. With a closing roof in place one could be quite sure that the weather would remain fine. Yes it would have been expensive but not half so expensive as a wet, washed out Opening Ceremony as that image of UK will be remembered forever.

I only produced one outside event, a mask at Old Government House in Auckland. The fear of rain and the cost of cancellation was the foremost worry. We got away it....JUST.... but I swore I should never do another. A past next door neighbor Michael Mizrahi and Marie Adams, who produce world class open air events have seen so many huge occasions washed out that I admire their perseverance in this area.

By using the army at least the security threat will hopefully be under control and fingers crossed for the rain. I don't want to be a Cassandra and say I told you so.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator and me ENFJ

Take test curtsey of Humanmetrics

I have neer been a fan of personality tests. They are not scientific and are virtually impossible to test. Like marketing, psychiatry,  psychology and alternative medecine these fields are still in the realms of art forms.

It is not that these disciplines do not work, they possibly do but there is no concrete, scientific evidence to back up their claims. Hopefully someday soon someone will invent a method by which these can be tested and produce real, tangible proof.

The BBC World Radio has been running a short series on the topic  of personality tests. It seems that the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test is now very popular among corporations, armies and navies and this test is given to prospective employees to see if they can fit in.  This test is not supposed to be used for this purpose and the type that you are assigned is supposed to make no difference as every type has its merits but, and it is a big BUT, it seems that extroverts are preferred.

You do not have to take the test but your chances of employment diminish. In many offices one is assigned a set of four letters like ENTP, ISFJ and some firms even have these on name tags and doors.

I hate tests of any kind. I loathe them and perform badly but there was one example of this test on line and being semi retired and never ever going to rejoin the work force I thought to hell with this I'll have a  go and see how wrong it can be. I must admit I had no faith in it at all. How can answering about 75 simple questions show one's personality type?

You can see the start of the test above. You have to be truthful and you have to answer all the questions even if they appear ridiculous and you have to want to take it. The first You are almost never late for appointments is a Yes for me as I was in the theatre and one had to be in the theatre before the half which is 35 minutes before a performance.  The habit of being early has stuck. As my husband said Janette you would be early for your own funeral! The second was a Yes, the third a No as I do not watch Soaps.

I did the lot and waited 10 seconds for my profile. It seems I am a ENFJ which is Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging. You can read my profile type here if you are interested.

To my horror and surprise the test was surprisingly accurate. Horribly accurate in fact. It knew more about me in those few seconds than many of my friends  have found out in my life. Here is the opening passage:

ENFJs are the benevolent 'pedagogues' of humanity. They have tremendous charisma by which many are drawn into their nurturant tutelage and/or grand schemes. Many ENFJs have tremendous power to manipulate others with their phenomenal interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it's usually not meant as manipulation -- ENFJs generally believe in their dreams, and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are.

ENFJs are global learners. They see the big picture. The ENFJs focus is expansive. Some can juggle an amazing number of responsibilities or projects simultaneously. Many ENFJs have tremendous entrepreneurial ability.  Humanmetrics

Yes I have had grand schemes that I have had to sell. Running a small professional opera company here in Auckland for 14 years was one of them. I have had to charm tenors, conductors, men in general and town councils to bring this to fruition. I believe in my dreams. I could not sell tobacco, alcohol or Mitt Romney. I had to do this by myself and learned many skills on the way. I can light a theatre, make a tutu and run a cafe on occasions when that area ceased to function. Yes to my surprise I am an entrepreneur.

ENFJs know and appreciate people. Like most NFs, (and Feelers in general), they are apt to neglect themselves and their own needs for the needs of others. They have thinner psychological boundaries than most, and are at risk for being hurt or even abused by less sensitive people. ENFJs often take on more of the burdens of others than they can bear.

I do appreciate people and their talents and I did neglect my own needs. Although I am a good performer for that 14 years I sat on the sidelines only performing when I had to and yes I can be hurt. When I was dismissed from my own production it hurt. Although I was never given a reason for their action I had stood up for the right of chorus artists to be paid and their safety of artists and orchestra by refusing to use real glasses with a revolve and I had chosen each artist to make sure the locals were used few of the cast or staff stood up for me. In fact only four contacted me. That hurt. It was a hurt from which I have never recovered. Needless to say the company that acquired my opera and the profits never employed any of my artists again.

The rest of the profile is equally applicable. Famous ENFJ's include Oprah Winfrey and President Obama.

Lastly although impressed I still have a skeptical outlook on this subject but I must admit for me it was spot on.

Big Ben or Queen Elizabeth Tower?

Now I have heard everything! Our elected MP's have voted to change the name of Big Ben to, wait for it..... Queen Elizabeth Tower!!!!!

I am speechless. It is challenging to find a name that trips off the tongue and everybody knows and everybody loves.  I know for I have been struggling with my names for years. Janette Miller was difficult enough but Janette Heffernan was impossible! I even tried Jan Mila for my company with no success either.

Surely renaming a major national icon to honour a very ordinary but pleasant woman who had the good fortune to win the major prize in the lottery of life is a major mistake.

Big Ben was a visual and audio focal point throughout the miseries and danger of the Second World War. Its chimes became a rallying point for allies in occupied countries and its reassuring sounds said it all. It was comforting and stood for everything the Nazis didn't. You knew where you stood with Big Ben and whose side you were on.

To rename it in honor of a hereditary monarch who has achieved greatness by reigning over us longest seems like outright toadying. Charles I must be laughing his head off.

If the Queen and the royal family knew what was good for them they would refuse the honour. They got away with the expensive shindig of the Jubilee celebrations, shot themselves in the foot with making Kate curtsey to the Royal Princesses of the blood but renaming Big Ben is a step too far.

Well you can rename the Tower, I suppose, but not the clock! That will always be Big Ben!