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qatsi... in a good way, mostly. On Saturday morning the Proms online booking system opened; I found myself just over 10,000 places down the queue as I was hoping to book seats for one concert. It took over an hour, but was successful; furthermore, I'm reasonably sure they are good seats for viewing the piano, for once. (You don't get to choose seats, only the vague seating area, and "side stalls" can end up being on either side).
On Sunday, my friend G had booked tickets to see The Scratch Verdi Requiem. We had some great tapas at Brindisa beforehand, then on to the hall. Our seats were in the circle, but we were redirected to the stalls due to under-booking. I don't think I've been to the hall other than for the Proms before, so it was interesting to see the arena under other circumstances. I've seen pictures with seating over the arena space, but on this occasion, there were just a few rows of seats; most of the arena was taken up by the orchestra. So, The Really Big Choir certainly was as advertised - filling the stage, the choir stalls above, and a chunk of the stalls on either side of the stage. According to the link above, they hadn't sung together prior to rehearsals earlier that day (hence, "scratch"). I noticed one singer who had his papers held to his chest, and realised it was a braille score - quite a challenge and an achievement. I was really impressed that conductor Bob Chilcott managed to keep all the singers in time with each other over such a wide area. The soloists were good, though I didn't always find their diction clear; the orchestra was decent enough but perhaps a little muted - probably more a reflection of being spoilt at the front of the arena so many times than anything else.
On Sunday, my friend G had booked tickets to see The Scratch Verdi Requiem. We had some great tapas at Brindisa beforehand, then on to the hall. Our seats were in the circle, but we were redirected to the stalls due to under-booking. I don't think I've been to the hall other than for the Proms before, so it was interesting to see the arena under other circumstances. I've seen pictures with seating over the arena space, but on this occasion, there were just a few rows of seats; most of the arena was taken up by the orchestra. So, The Really Big Choir certainly was as advertised - filling the stage, the choir stalls above, and a chunk of the stalls on either side of the stage. According to the link above, they hadn't sung together prior to rehearsals earlier that day (hence, "scratch"). I noticed one singer who had his papers held to his chest, and realised it was a braille score - quite a challenge and an achievement. I was really impressed that conductor Bob Chilcott managed to keep all the singers in time with each other over such a wide area. The soloists were good, though I didn't always find their diction clear; the orchestra was decent enough but perhaps a little muted - probably more a reflection of being spoilt at the front of the arena so many times than anything else.