Suzanne Wilson, Amanda Morrison, Micaela Haslam,
Heather Cairncross, Andrew Busher, Gerard O'Beirne

Porto poster

"Having been picked up at the airport by an enormous coach, just for the six of us, we made our way to the hotel, which was a little way out of Porto centre but close to the Casa da Musica.  Most importantly though, it was 5 star!  Lovely rooms and lots of bathroom accoutrements including Molton Brown goodies and even bathroom scales - gave those a miss!  
 
Mandy, Suzanne and I went to a cafe/bistro/bar down the road to get a little something to eat, then went straight to the rehearsal.  Casa da Musica is a big modern building, featuring concrete and metal, and looks from one side like a space ship with a ramp down to earth.  Our dressing room had these huge sloping windows, and downstairs we found a matching Star Trek door - very fine.  

Dressing room

Star Trek door

After the (happily brief) rehearsal we decided to revisit the place we'd been earlier for a drink.  This second visit was not quite so successful!  The beers were fine, but my red wine would have been better off in a salad dressing.  The most entertaining international incident occurred when Gerry requested a plate of Serrano ham (he did the cutting actions and everything to indicate what this ham should look like - how rubbish are we at Portuguese!), and the waiter returned with a big pile of diced spam on cocktail sticks!  

Steve Reich & Musicians at the sound check

Mandy & Steve Reich rehearsing Music for 18

Mandy's husband, Nev, had flown over to join us in Porto so they were able to spend a lovely day wandering round the old town.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.
 
The concert went very well and it was great to be doing Daniel Variations again, which is still relatively new for us.  We're looking forward to getting to know the piece as well as we know all of Steve's other works.
 
Drinks at the hotel bar seemed like a safer option this evening, and we had a lovely time chatting and drinking with several members of Steve's ensemble whilst sampling the in-house port selection.  Tour going very well so far!"
 
Micaela