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Fancying a wee change and a bit of culture, 16 of us took the train into Glasgow with the intention of attending the Eonarium Enlightenment show in the Grand Hall of Merchants House of Glasgow.
Some of Neilston Men's Group in Glasgow Central Station
Given the timing limitations of Scotrail's Concession tickets, which keeps our costs down, we found ourselves in town a bit early for the show so, fancying a snack, we called ahead to arrange some chip teas at the Val d'Oro Restaurant at Glasgow Cross and then headed down there.
The Val D'Oro has been there since the 1940's and has been serving food on the site for much, much longer. We were heartily welcomed in by owner Enrico Corvi, who had already set up our table and his son Gianluca was already getting our fish teas going. Sadly Enrico's brother Luigi wasn't around as he's well known as an operatic tenor and is prone to entertaining the customers. Here's a sample:
The décor is straight out of the fifties and the seating was definitely a bit tight for some of us but it was worth it for the excellent food. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it so we're hoping we can find somewhere else in town to visit so we can come back.
Once everyone was fed, we headed back up the George Square and The Merchants House for our entertainment. The show is obviously popular as had to queue to get in.
Once inside, we all filed into the darkened Grand Hall and were shown to some sensible seats. There were bean bags in the centre of the room but the thought of trying to get back up after lying down for half and hour made us see sense for once. Once the hall was full, the doors were closed and the show started. I did try and get some photos but it's a very audio-visual thing that stills alone can't really capture. That said, here are a few pics:
The show is set to the four violin concertos of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons as it passes through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and ends with a couple of extra themes based on the Indian religious ideas of Samsara and Nirvana.
It's been created by an artist collective of visual artists, musicians, programmers, engineers and designers from Zurich called Projektil.
The show only lasts 30 minutes but it was enough. Any longer in the dark being shown hypnotic visuals with a baroque music soundtrack and, given that the majority of us grew up with the psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s like Pink Floyd, and you'd had to carry us out.
We did try and get a group photo inside the Grand Hall, we even got someone to take it, but they never put the lights up and what we did get was really too dark and grainy to use.
If you fancy a visit to the Eonarium Enlightenment show, then it's touring and you can find the show dates and venues on their web sites:
If you'd like to find out a bit more about the Val D'Oro, then there's a very good article about it here:
You can find more information about The Merchants House on their
Finally, if you fancy listening to the full Vivaldi's Four Seasons, then there's lots of versions on YouTube and Spotify:
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