Cardiff: Correspondent's Notes

In response to a few questions from Concert One:

I asked about the hall that the bass apparently had trouble filling...

St. David's Hall is a modern building, quite broad, with the upper seating arranged in suspended and segmented tiers. My impression from numerous radio broadcasts I've heard from it is that the acoustics are good, and nothing last night seemed to deny that. Yes, I know it's unusual for basses, of all voices, to be weak, but I also had four other singers to compare with, and while all of them were at times almost covered by the orchestra, it was nothing like Ghazaryan. Besides, there was that thing of running out of breath on the Cavatina - he started the crescendo late, and then couldn't hold it.

Commenter asperias asked "i am very curious what you would have said about young Hvorostovsky"...

I would have raved about the young Hvorostovsky. I saw that competition on TV, and still remember it vividly.

Also, a side note about Concert Two:

Take That were in concert tonight at the Millenium Stadium, which is about 500 yards from St. David's Hall, and got out around about the same time as we did, so getting home has been a bit of a trial, to say the least! And they're doing the same thing tomorrow night, blast their eyes! It complicates matters.