"I took my wife to a few bullfights for our silver wedding anniversary recently, as you do."

(I think the audience thought Mark was joking when he said this, but he said exactly the same to us a couple of nights earlier and went on to describe what he'd seen, so I presume he was telling the truth. We were walking offstage when he started to tell the audience about bullfighting, though, so I don't know whether or not he went into quite as graphic detail as he did with us. I hope not - some of the choir got quite upset!)

Opera gig went really well. Morning rehearsal was a little chaotic - we warmed up for a very long time, yet when we were directed to go onto the platform, the orchestra were still on their break, so we sat there for a while doing nothing. Yet with only five minutes to go, we were still offstage rehearsing Carmen, and Brindisi hadn't been touched. Amazingly we managed to get back onstage and run through Brindisi without Tom the orchestra manager having to call a halt to proceedings!

Long gap between rehearsal and concert. Some of the choir complain about these, and I must admit it is frustrating occasionally when I've got tons of work to do at home. But on the whole I really enjoy the enforced relaxing afternoon - Alison and I live too far away for it to be worth going home and coming back, so we usually make the most of the time in town. Today there was a very long (but productive, hopefully) committee meeting after the rehearsal, but even after I'd sat through that, we still had time to go for a lovely cooling swim in the Commonwealth Games pool, followed by a leisurely meal - with a cocktail! - and we still had almost an hour to sit on a sofa in Starbucks and read. A lovely day :-)

The concert was good too. Of course it was much too hot, but never mind. The house was nearly full, and the audience seemed to have a great time. The soloists (Nuccia Focile and Paul Charles Clarke) were great - particularly in the comic duet from "L'elisir d'amore" - and Mark was in fine form. He introduced Paul Charles Clarke as "the great Welsh tenor". After he'd sung his first item, Mark said "As Paul has just reminded me, he is actually from Liverpool."

(This was much funnier at the time...)

All our bits went well. Oh, and in Brindisi, the soloists brought on glasses of champagne as usual, and brought an extra one for Mark, which they handed to him towards the end of the first verse. Very impressively, he conducted the whole of the second verse with this very full glass in one hand, and didn't spill a drop. In the third verse he started to drink it, sipping at first then chugging it down. He beat slower the more he drank, but as soon as he'd finished it he got faster and faster towards the end. A clever effect which was very entertaining :-)