"Sopranos, you switch on like lights in a city - gradually, over half an hour."

Ladies' sectional tonight, at the BBC. The studio was FABULOUSLY cool - wish we could rehearse there all the time! I was made still cooler by the fact that just after I arrived, Margery handed me a bottle of water and asked me if I could open it for her. Needless to say, it turned out to be sparkling water that had been shaken, and it went EVERYWHERE! Thanks, Margery :p

There are those who may be thinking that Jamie needed to be drenched with water tonight... He was in one of those moods in which he appeared to be enjoying himself to an almost alarming extent! Several times I heard different people comment "I want some of what he's on!" I think my favourite moment was during the Fire Chorus. He decided it would be useful for us to sing page 42 to "ha ha ha", while singing all offbeat quavers as loudly as possible and all onbeat quavers very quietly. He demonstrated this - so impressively that we gaped with open mouths ("I've been practising all day!" he said afterwards) - but the bit that amused me was that Meg walked in while this performance was going on, and didn't bat an eyelid!

The Fire Chorus sounds pretty good now. We spent a bit of time getting the Italian words right (at speed). After a few minutes of us rattling off some of the lines, Jamie commented how bizarre this might appear to outsiders. "Imagine an alien walking in!" he said. "Imagine an Italian!" retorted someone.

There was also something about how Cheshire and North Wales are quite different but wouldn't appear so to a Brazilian. Wish I could remember what on earth this had to do with Verdi!

We also did the Carmen finale (which prompted the comment in the title) and a few Gerontius bits (p95-102; p169-end; p126-147). Three final Jamieisms:

"I love the way you count with your tummies!"

"Descending semitone MISERY, ladies!"

"Sopranos, if Manchester is where we want to be, let's just say that note was only at about Macclesfield." [They try again.] "We're nearly at Stockport! It's amazing!" [And again.] "We're RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FLAT! ... Which is in the centre of Manchester. You realised that, right?"