Woot! Yay! And Huzzah!

I had a fab evening out. Everything was just perfect. I was a bit worried about getting a *cheap* ticket - as Sandra said, you see it and exclaim "Ye gods!" And I climbed and climbed and climbed to reach the Upper Amphitheatre, where I had an excellent view of the stage and thanked my darling, but absent, fiance, who had given me a pair of binoculars.

Hoffman is essentially a light comic opera, but there were moments of sheer wonderfulness, most notably a trio in the second act which was then joined by the chorus, and I just floated away to another place. Willard White was splendid and the sopranos were all pleasant. I had been slightly sceptical of the Times and Guardian reviews:

Villazón's virile presence and accomplished stagecraft carried him through and mark him out for a significant career, even if his focused and flexible voice is occasionally spoiled by a hard-edged vibrato that creeps in when the going gets tough.

Rolando Villazón started like the lovely, sculpted lyric singer we thought he was before burgeoning into real, deep-textured, velvety dramatic-tenor land — a truly gorgeous performance of huge heart and musicality, full of little grace-notes and romantic ardour in Hoffmann’s duets and repeated, rising, yearning phrases.

Not to mention the Telegraph:

Sensational Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon is the pressing reason to see this otherwise rather second-rate revival of John Schlesinger's production.

Update And the Sunday Times waxes lyrical Mexican rave: a gifted young tenor turned a routine revival into something special

I kind of feel like I did when I saw the Manchester United Youth Team in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup Final in 1992. Only, like, more so.

Gorgeous voice...!

And he released an album yesterday, too. Which is now on my wish list...