An afternoon at The Cloisters Museum and Martyn Green remembered

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Ben Thompson

The trip to The Cloisters Museum at Fort Tryon Park is a daunting one and a half hour’s ride on the number 4 bus. It stops at every block on the way. It has been 35 years or more since I drove the children from Westchester to visit the museum and I had no idea that the very northern part of Manhattan is so densely populated.

Incidentally, it was about 45 years ago that I was in the same area to see Martyn Green of D’Oyly Carte fame, the greatest Lord High Executioner of all time, give a performance at one of the University theatres. By this time, he had lost his leg in a freak elevator accident, but, wearing a prosthetic, he gave a brave, and naturally subdued, rendering of the role which, in his Sadlers’ Wells performances, would have brought the house down. I had seen him take at least ten curtain calls!

Even more daunting, was the steep flights of steps leading up to the reception area from the lower entrance (where the bus drops you off). Fortunately, a very courteous guard showed me to a cobbled ramp which curved fairly gently upwards to the front entrance. I really had not allowed myself enough time to give the medieval artworks their due so I took a few pictures and determined to return to the museum shortly to view them at greater length. I see that I should have paid more attention to captions of the artworks I photographed.