A triumphal performance

I hate labels, but probably more than anything else, I consider myself to be a musician. My interests are not solely limited to the piano and classical music, but range from classic rock to indie, from musicals to jazz. One genre has been a sort of mystery: opera. Probably because Malta lacks a proper opera house or perhaps I have only been to one opera in my life, Orff's Carmina Burana, which, despite its vocal beauty, lacked the theatricality of stage performance which one would expect in, say, a Mozart or Verdi opera. This all changed last Sunday when we went to see the Aida at the wonderful Royal Albert Hall.

It was a lovely day - spring seems to be making an appearance here in London - and we ventured off to South Ken on a Sunday late morning, for a very different reason from our usual Monday-Friday trip there. Tickets in hand and up to the topmost level, an usher asked us if we would like to get an upgrade to one of the (£65 worth) seats just off the 'stage' (which was really in the round). What sort of question is that? Surely a rhetoric one! We exchanged tickets and 1 minute later we were seated just 5m away from the edge of the performance area. And soon the show began.

A three-hour-long delight, a celebration of live music, powerful singing and a contemporary twist to the otherwise late 19th century masterpiece. In my operatic ignorance, I was only vaguely aware of the plot, except that it was set in ancient Egypt and even more unfamiliar with the music, except for the cliché that is the Triumphal march, but in its Shakespearean-tragedy quality, the plot was simple enough to follow, even if with the help of the English translation, and the outing proved to be a brilliant start to my interest in opera.

The next appointment by the same company at the same venue is in a year's time, almost to the day, with nothing else but Bizet's Carmen. You know what I am going to do next? I think I am going to book tickets...