Bramley

Is the placing of needles painful, or do they anaesthetise the area first? The mere thought terrorises me.

But not on Freeview !! Ah well.....

Jasmine

Typical! At least you'll be able to complete your acupuncture course.

Just a reminder that the British Soap Awards are on ITV1 tonight at 7.30 till 10.00pm. The recorded programme includes Darius presenting the Sexiest Female award.

Gazebo

Good luck for your next op Meg

How many of you are going to see Darius after the show (hopefully!)?

I've scrapped the idea of coming now that I've checked things out, the timing is too tight from Kings Cross. Plus a friend in London has told me the Jubilee line will probably be closed on Sunday as they are working on it. I daren/t risk the train running late, as they often do on Sundays.

Pip, I am also wondering whether to go or not, as I told Spam last week. Sue, what time does your train get into Euston? P.S. Just wondering how much time you have allowed to get across London.

Queen of the Night (Mozart opera)

The O2 Carmen is a repeat of last year's show at the Albert Hall. Here is a review of that show. Going to see an opera for the first time is a bit scary. It's just a bunch of fat blokes and warbly maidens singing in tuneless Italian before melodramatically kicking the bucket, isn't it? Who would want to see that? But Raymond Gubby's lavish production of Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall might be the one to change your mind. For starters it's in English, meaning you have a chance of actually understanding the plot. And it has acrobats, fire-eaters and a cast of seemingly hundreds of children and soldiers. Did we mention it was lavish? The story itself is as old as the hills. Girl meets boy; girl is a bit mad and gets boy sent to prison; boy become obsessed with girl; girl falls for a bull-fighter instead, etc. Pretty much the contents of an average episode of EastEnders, in fact. Cristina Nassif's Carmen is a feisty, tempestuous character who holds both the male characters and the audience in her spell, while John Daszak's Don Jose is a suitably jealous loser. The inventive staging in the round allows what is usually the stalls to become a village square or a desolate forest, even if the curvy split-level stage looks a bit like a drained swimming pool thanks to the ladders round its edge. Best of all is Bizet's sumptuous music which is crammed full of 'Greatest Classical Album in the World... Ever' type hits. Played effortlessly here by the Royal Philharmonic under the direction of Peter Robinson it's stuff to get your pulse racing, from the instantly recognisable overture to the endlessly hummable Toreadors Aria. This is populist opera and all the better for it - anyone who enjoys a dramatic spectacle, some decent tunes and a bit of Spanish buzz will find plenty to appreciate here.

It appears that Rolando is suffering voice problems again, but he is trying to establish a TV career. Quote Villazon's new TV career: Opera stars Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Rolando Villazon have been lined up to take part in a wide-ranging BBC opera season. They join the likes of Stephen Fry, Rick Stein and Katie Derham for Opera On The BBC, which starts on TV and radio and launches online this week. and The Sunday Times did not particularly like the recent Rolando Villazon concert in London; the British paper thinks the Mexican tenor's voice is, well, gone: .. This is from this link http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/rolando_villazn/

Offenbach

Thanks Meg. Not a programme I've watched before, but it will be great to see D on the screen again.

Johann Christian Bach

Handel

Fingal's Cave

As I said yesterday morning, it is on at 7.30pm.

Dvorak

bass-baritone

Freefall Somebody tell me

soul - Now or Never

673) Day of my life

Oh, the things we are drawn into because of D !!!!!!!!