Catching Up and Taking Stock

I would like to thank everyone who wrote in while my computer was down to tell me about the interview with Ruth Wilson. It was very cheering to know that so many people are noticing these things.

I have also started to realise what has been lost. Most of my collected Bronteana were not backed up. Most of the illustrations were already transferred to the Bronteana Resource Page but not all. The very best were lost, but I still have the edition I scanned them from. I will try to get them done before I leave for Halifax. All of the best material in audio was backed up so all that was lost were the truly awful or otherwise bad adaptations. So, I guess this isn't such a bad thing. You won't have to listen to the Jane Eyre production from the Erie Playhouse of which the nicest thing I can say is that the Entr'acte has a nice tune (although live it could have been entertaining. 'My Days with Celine' had Rochester, Celine and the Vicomte interpretive dancing, I hear). I also lost the BBC radio series with Ciaran Hinds and Sophie Thompson. This is unfortunate because some people did want to hear this despite my warnings. I don't know if the Wierd Circle productions are gone- you recall, the Jane Eyre with the T-rex sound effects and tea spoons of horror. All of the really splendid badness is backed up: 'Rockin' Rochester', and also 'Rochester Triumphant' are all safe on CD. Some of the rest of the 'lost' items are on my ipod...

For those who are not long time readers of Bronteana, 'Rockin' Rochester' refers to a demo song called 'If You Could See the World' mercifully cut from the Broadway musical of Jane Eyre in which Rochester 'rocks out.' There's a less popular song where St.John does the same but it is funnier when Rochester does it (there is a song in another show called 'St.John is the Man'). 'Rochester Triumphant' is also a cut song from the Broadway show but it made it into its pre-Bway run at La Jolla. This is actually called 'The Chestnut Tree.' To disguise the noise of the tree being switched for the blasted one, Rochester starts to shout poetic triumph to the skies with a chorus, trumpets, and bells in the background! It sounds a bit like a slot machine... Only with trumpets and Jane Eyre. It is a profoundly guilty pleasure. I like it even more than the demo for 'Perfect Match' with its mix of Gilbert and Sullivan with Handel's Messiah: Blanche trilling, manly choruses of 'England is glorious, Hosannah!' and cymbals.