Well, all right, I'm still staggering around and limping and so on, but here's a brief report on the Renaissance Banquet. The food wasn't exactly 15th century, and we received a full complement of knives and forks to eat it with, and there weren't any boars rotating on spits or anything like that. Still it was a pretty passable imitation of a feast. The Four Seasons, indeed, outdid itself.
It was a strange mix of guests. About a third were members of Thailand's upper crust, including three (count 'em) Khunyings (real ones, that is, i.e. members of royal families rather than "created" ones). They included the wily M.R. Sunida, the winsome M.R. Benjapa, and the wild M.R. Malini. Another third were local music lovers and/or lovers of fine social events. Yet another third were graduate students from Golden Gate University's Faculty of Law, who were in Thailand for a summer international law course.
To make the evening more merry (or "merrie") there was a raffle whose prizes included a pearl necklace and a spa holiday in Chiengmai.
Of course, these three audiences were not exactly afficionados of the music of such 14th century greats as Landini and Dufay. Nevertheless, they seemed to have a great time. One of the great advantages of music of this period is that it's considerably shorter than Wagner. Your attention doesn't really have that much time to wander. There were many high points, among them the animated poetry readings.
I'll be posting a video as soon as I get one....
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