The reason we are in Madrid is slightly complicated. The reason for coming here, at this time, is to see Plácido in Tamerlano, but that's just an excuse for a long weekend/short week, a city break, some sight-seeing and hanging out.
As we were going to breakfast we met some people in the lift from Zurich that I know slightly from hanging round stage doors, a mother and son from Zurich, so we greeted each other, and they were 'we know where you're going this evening', so I was, well, actually, no, Tuesday.
That having been said, we did go to the box office this morning just to see if there were any tickets available. The woman on the box office gave us an amused smile as she said 'sold out'. Perhaps she assumed we were naive English tourists just thinking we'd maybe pick up a ticket for the opera as something different to do.
We spent quite a portion of the day sight-seeing, basically walking up to the Jardines del Retiro and round the boating lake. Strolling, admiring the architecture, and so on. And taking just short of a hundred photos. We stopped off somewhere or other for Tapas and wandered a bit more. There came a point where we were basically lost although not really lost, so a quick look at the map gave us our bearings and I was 'if we go through here and onto ther, we'll be there in no time'. As we approached our hotel we noticed a small crowd gathering outside the Stage Door of the Teatro Real. And we had literally just got there when Plácido arrived, so I flung my camera at Jimmy saying 'here, turn it on, take photos'. He later pointed out he had never previously turned my camera on. However, he did take some photos. 
This is me waving my walking stick at Señor Domingo
This is me glowering at Jimmy while Plácido poses with a fan.
This is possibly a picture of Plácido and me together...
And this is a picture of the Teatro Real from my hotel room. He's in there somewhere. Well, by now (1907 hours), he'll be on stage, just about. As you can gather, I'm not in the theatre. I did go back to the box office at about six o'clock, but there was a long queue, and while I suppose I might have got lucky, I doubted that I would, and my feet are in a bad bad way, so I am sitting in my hotel room metres from an opera house where the greatest ever opera singer is performing. And that hurts a bit but I'm trying to be brave.
