Little joys

My mother is coming to visit during this year's Festival. The idea had struck me when we were shown the programme ahead of the launch date: among the indisputable highlights of this year's programme is the first British production of Balanchine's Don Quixote, choreographed by Suzanne Farrell, for whom it was written. I knew immediately Mother would appreciate it, and with one of the dates coinciding with her first wedding anniversary without my father, my mind was made up: it's one of those occasions when she shouldn't be left on her own.

We also plan to see the Opéra National de Lyon's production of Mazeppa and the RSC's Troilus and Cressida (both directed by Peter Stein), Osmo Vänskä conducting Petrushka and Mackerras joining the SCO for Beethoven's seventh, not to mention Suzanne Farrell talking about the Balanchine. Mother will probably also be going to see Christian Zacharias giving a piano recital - all this in the space of four days!

(For my part, I'm only going to see two other concerts outside those four days - a recital of 20th century flute music and the Trout quintet. You may wonder why I'm not bothering with the Berlin Philharmoniker under Rattle or Abbado conducting The magic flute, but the truth is, the performers are secondary to the programme. Zauberflöte is so difficult to get right that I'm perfectly willing to miss it rather than be left disappointed.)

That's fantastic news for the summer. In the meantime, my contract at work has been extended to take me up to the end of the Festival (early September), about which I'm delighted. I had been a little worried that I'd be gone after the six weeks were up - never mind whether they wanted me to stay, it was going to depend on the workload first and foremost - and in the end, it was down to one of the other new recruits handing in his notice (to go to a better-paid job), but I'm not complaining. If it helps me make a career in arts administration, it's all good.

Final surprise tonight was that my O vos omnes, which we performed at last year's Good Friday service, is getting another airing, again on Good Friday. I mentioned The prodigal son to our director of music on Sunday and he's expressed an interest, so in the meantime, another performance of Oi, you lot! - as I affectionately call it - will go down quite nicely.