Il nome suo nessun saprà... e noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!

Hands up how many Hallé Choir ladies still have those words imprinted on their brains, years after we were last asked to sing them? (Translation is roughly "no-one will know his name, and we, alas, must die". Now you know.)

If this means nothing to you, I should explain that we used to do the Classical Spectacular every year, and Nessun Dorma was always on the programme, and that line is the only line that the choir sing, and we always had to do it with no lights on us, so we had to memorise it. Some ladies found the words impossible to remember and had various strategies for getting round this, mainly involving luminous marker pens!

I mention all of this because, in case you haven't seen the news, Luciano Pavarotti died today. (There's all sorts of information about him on Wikipedia, of course, in case you're interested. I also saw an interesting description about how Nessun Dorma came to be a football anthem, and Thomas Allen describing what it was like to work with Pavarotti.)

I wanted to remind you all to watch the Proms highlights on BBC1 later tonight, when the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela was due to be featured, but when I looked up the link I found that it's not on any more - it's been replaced with a Pavarotti programme. Pavarotti shared my birthday, so I've always felt a bit of a connection with him, but I wish they'd picked a different timeslot to show his tribute! That's just me being unreasonable, though, because he does deserve a tribute, and the Proms slot is the obvious one. Plus, it looks as if the Proms thing is being shown next Thursday night instead. I'll try to remind you then.

Choir started back last night after a gap of what seems like several years, and it was good to see everyone - and to sing properly again! We did a couple of the Sibelius a cappella songs (one about a fire on an island, and one about a surly fellow with a boat (!) - the rest of the Sibelius hasn't been given out yet) - very easy, although we haven't attempted the Finnish yet - and also revisited Komm Jesu Komm, which we'll be doing in a memorial concert in a few weeks' time. (No word yet on what else is in that concert.) Next week is sectionals (on Brahms and Holst) with Fanny and David, and a look at more of the Sibelius, if the music's arrived by then; the week after is Verdi with David Lawrence. It's no longer an official open rehearsal, but guests are still welcome. The following week, Schola Cantorum are back from China, and it's all hands to the pump for the memorial concert.

Oh, and we were pleased to learn that a to-be-confirmed a cappella gig has been added to our diary for 27th April, so that we can perform some of the stuff we did at the choir weekend, together with maybe a with-organ version of the Harty piece which we're doing with the orchestra a few days later. (My online schedule has been updated to include everything I've just said.)

Finally... Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden was mentioned again last night, so some of you may like to know that the mp3 that I put online last time it came up is still there. Plus, anyone who still hasn't got a recording of Komm Jesu Komm... that's still online too. But if anyone's got (or gets) a recording of any of the Sibelius stuff, I'd appreciate some mp3s (and I'll put them online for everyone else, unless you ask me not to) because I still don't have a job, so I'm broker than ever so iTunes is not an option!