"The second performance of The Desert Music went extremely well! The audience was small but highly appreciative, and consisted of many young people. The French have a wonderful attitude to music – they bring the whole family to the concert and even the youngest children listen quietly – and this is not easy music. After three curtain calls, we attended a delightful reception in the venue foyer, with lovely wine and particularly fine nibbles.

The ever-smiling sound crew had solved the monitor problem and once again, the amazing power of the piece had me awestruck. I was singing 1st alto, which is right in the middle of the texture with lots of lovely crunches and is relatively easy on the voice. The sopranos have the hard job, sitting on top A’s and B’s for pages on end, although the tenors might argue with that, as they too have some pretty high stuff to contend with! The basses sit beautifully right at the bottom and when we’re all singing our heads off, its exciting stuff to be part of! The words in the piece are very powerful and diction can be a problem, so we were spitting out the consonants for all our worth – I fear the back row of the orchestra may have got a little damp!

Again on a tourist note, Caen is a great place for a visit, two fine churches, plenty of great restaurants (oh, those crêpes with ice cream!) and a particularly memorable Irish pub that stays open very late…. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit the Normandy Beaches and war memorials or the Bayeux tapestry, which are both nearby.”

Sarah