Sometimes you wonder whether it is worth crossing the Atlantic just to see a few performances and suffer from jetlag. But then a performance like yesterday's eclipses all your doubts. I had only known Massenet's Don Quichotte from a recording which left me with the impression of a pale and one-dimensional piece. Seeing and hearing it in a live performance made me understand why it was such a success when it was first performed in Monte-Carlo one hundred years ago. Massenet's score evokes an artificial Spain very much in the succession of Bizet's Carmen, but also points forward to Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso. Alain Guingal conducted the score masterfully and lovingly and Ferruccio Furlanetto proved to be the worthy successor to great protagonists like Chaliapine or Ghiaurov. I am glad I came all the way.

It is a gorgeous morning here in Palermo and as on all these business trips I would have loved to see more of the city than my hotel and the splendid Teatro Massimo, but I am already on my way to Bologna for auditions this afternoon and a performance of La Traviata tonight.

I will leave you with a discovery I made at the hotel this morning: a piano stool that, apparently, belonged to Richard Wagner during one of his visits to Palermo.