Wednesday, 13 September

Rain

At 5.00 in the afternoon I went to room 121 of the National Hotel to return the visit from the New Zealand Minister Charles Boswell.

In the evening I invited Jingchen, Chengyong and Shengsong to the Grand Theatre to watch the opera Don Quixote. The first scene and half of the third scene were cut from the total five scenes and this made the opera four scenes. So the time was reduced to three hours. It started at 7.00 and ended at 10.00. It was much better than before. Foreigners find Russian plays too long. As a matter of fact, the first scene and the half of the third scene could be cut off. The appearances of the artists were quite ordinary, but their dances were fine.