Magic at Royal Albert Hall

Ah, the joys of late night blogging.

The clocks went forward an hour today, as summer draws ever nearer to England - not that you'd notice it, it's been positively arctic this week - but nonetheless I find myself at my laptop at midnight on Sunday, not tired in the slightest, due to a combination of time movement, and the fact I slept in till midday.

So, rather than lie in bed and look up at, well, my ceiling, I thought I may as well recap yesterday, which consisted of going to the "Classical Spectacular" at Royal Albert Hall.

To be honest, I think it's been the best 30 quid I've ever outlaid. For this princely sum, I managed to purchase a ticket in the Royal Albert Hall, a few tiers up, right behind the conductor, and with a view of the entire stage. Not to mention a view of the orchestra, choir, tiers and the light show that accompanied the program.

And what a program it was. When they said Classical Spectacular, they weren't kidding. Some of the highlights included:

Land of Hope & Glory - They actually gave out little British flags with the program, which everyone madly waved around in the audience, as over five thousand people in the audience belted out Britain's unoffical national anthem. They also did the Hornpipe and Rule Britannia from British Sea Songs - so, although I will never, ever get a ticket to Last Night of the Proms, I heard all the best parts of it anyway.

They also had a tenor & a baritone there, who sang some classic operatic numbers - they did the duet from Bizet's the Pearl Fishers, as well the quintessential pieces for a baritone and tenor respectively - Largo al factum from the Barber of Seville, and Nessun Dorma from Turandot. The tenor also did the famous number from Rigoletto, while the baritone finished up with Rule Britannia.

Perhaps the highlight though, at least in terms of the music, was the finale - the 1812 overture, complete not only with orchestra & choir, but with riflemen, cannons, light show and fireworks. All inside the Royal Albert Hall. It was, in a word, magical.

And what a venue for it too. While I wasn't able to take my camera along, I can at least give you an idea of the setting...


This is the hall, from the outside.



And this is a pretty close shot of the view that I would have had. Imagine it packed out with people, the orchestra on stage, choir filling the rises...

The funny thing is, this spectacular was a far cry from where I was, literally 3 hours before the concert started. And that was ensconced in a chair at Finchley Road Walkabout, sinking a few pints and watching Australia's batsmen cane several layers of hell out of South Efffrika's bowling attack. While I had to leave at the close of Australia's innings, I was (reasonably) confident that we could win it.

And so we did.

I am starting to think it's high time I got out of London for a while though. For the first time, I joined into London society and was rude to someone on the tube.

*Wry smile*

They reckon when you start getting like the rest of London and start getting snappy at random people you need to take a break from the gigantic grey scab, as I like to call it.

And what better place than sunny Brisbane? See ya soon.