"Teeth in!"

... said the irrepressible Bruce to the front row sopranos, as he held open the door for them to go onstage. Cheeky thing! However, we will forgive him as it his birthday today :-)

Great gig. Everyone really enjoyed it - particularly the audience! They particularly liked the Easter Hymn; they burst into tumultuous applause after it, even though the music hadn't actually stopped. (I love it when that happens - it really irritates me when, in some other halls, spontaneous applause is frowned upon because it's "not in the right place". If the audience want to approve, let them, I say!) Mark had to wait quite a while before continuing. Don't think he was too upset though! (unlike at the start of the concert, when he stood on the podium and stared at two latecomers until they got to their seats... the couple in question got a round of applause, but I don't think Mark was too impressed)

The soloists were great, particularly Santuzza (Dolora Zajick). They all wore black apart from Lola, who (being the "scarlet woman" of the piece) wore a bright red dress. (I am very slow at noticing things sometimes, so I must admit that the significance of the colours didn't dawn on me until Lindsey pointed it out.) The only disappointment was that Turiddu (Ian Storey) sang with a score, whereas the other soloists all did it from memory. He had a fantastic voice, but the communication just wasn't there. For example, he sang a long aria to his mother (Mamma Lucia, played by Frances McCafferty), during which she gazed worriedly at him throughout, perfectly in character, yet he didn't look at her once!

I took a few photos in the interval - some better than others, as ever - which are up on the choir website. (Yael asked me tonight if I could possibly put thumbnails on (linking to full images) instead of the images themselves, which would really help non-broadband people. I felt a bit guilty as I've been meaning to do that for ages, but the way I currently do it takes approximately 5 minutes (literally) to get the photos from camera to web, and I have had no time to sort it out an alternative method (which would probably be just as quick once in place). Sorry! I'll get to it sometime, I promise.)

Not many Jamieisms tonight, sorry, although you will be pleased to learn that we did do "the Spider-Man warmup" (a good way of stretching when there are a large number of people in a small space), and the ladies were asked to sing the opening chorus "as if twirling a long, handlebar-type Edwardian moustache" :-)

No choir next week, but I'll be seeing quite a few choir people on Saturday night for Sue's party, at which my band is performing. Can't wait!