Opera is a funny thing, I always imagine that it must have been the total lack of alternatives which made it so universally popular during the last centuries.
I have enjoyed all music since a teenager, pop, jazz, classical, musicals, folk, even for quite a time having a passion for the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, but the enjoyment of grand opera was always a bit of a mystery to me.
Sile has always been involved with choirs so she was the first to make me appreciate the joys of choral singing.
It is all to do with familiarity, having attended hundreds of concerts of the various choirs in which she sang I began to love the songs.
Once I realised that I could become attached to an Italian madrigal it was much more likely that I would have an open mind when listening to the next one.
While still in school I remember going to a performance of Traviata, which I enjoyed, but most Grand Opera remained very much a closed book, that is until until I saw Bergman’s production of The Magic Flute on the tele in the late seventies.
I was an immediate convert, bought the triple LP and became a devoted follower of Papageno.
In the nineties we started to take our annual holidays in Provence, as we were going quite close to Orange the thought was mooted that we should go to a performance in the Roman Theatre Antique there.
The first year we decided to attend I asked a friend, a known opera buff, for advice on which of the various operas on offer we should go to. The recommendation was to go to “Lucia Di Lammermoor” by Donizetti-“if only for the marvellous sestet”.

I then did the right thing and ordered in a CD of the opera from my local record store.
I ended up playing it constantly, thoroughly loved the performance in Orange and, Yes ! The sestet is magnificent!
The following year Orange was producing The Magic Flute, no problem here and I was fairly hooked.
I managed to get similarly hooked on The Marriage of Figaro thanks to a production in the Theatre Royal here in Waterford so I now have a small repertoire of familiar operas which I love.
Mind you I have had my failures, Otello by Verdi has swept past my ears without a trace, despite trying to familiarise myself with both the CD and a strikingly modern production in Orange.

However until this week I have remained firmly on the audience side of the footlights.
This has now all changed.
Sile’s choir, Madrigallery, were asked to sing a brief chorus in Michael Hunt’s promenade production of Tosca which is on in Waterford this week.
(The same Michael Hunt who, just yesterday, was appointed the new CEO of Wexford Festival Opera.)
As they needed all the voices they could get for this and as all the singing was to be in unison, (don’t ask me to sing a harmony line!) it was agreed that I could be part of their number just for this occasion.
The result is that last night, for however fleeting a moment, I have actually appeared in a Grand Opera !
It is wonderful to still be achieving some firsts in one’s life especially in my old age.
The production is excitingly modern and Act One takes place in Christchurch Cathedral, Act Two in the Theatre Royal and Act Three, from what I gather, somewhere in between.
So far I have only managed to hear Act One from the cramped but magnificent Consistory in the back of the church but tonight we have been given tickets to see Acts Two and Three.

I will let you know how I got on.