It's becoming one hell of an evening

I've had the cinema broadcast of the Royal Opera House's new production of Don Giovanni in the diary for a while.

It's on in Newark - yay! saves a trip to Nottingham - but I hadn't booked, because what's the chances of it being even half full here?

This morning, I check and eeek, there are only six seats left and only two together (JA is going with me). Fortunately, those two are more or less where I'd want to be sitting anyway, because the other four left are off the front corners. And I've booked the pair.

I'm quite surprised the ROH is doing a new production, because the previous one a) isn't very old and b) was excellent. But if you were thinking of seeing it - and you should see at least one production of the greatest opera ever - then it's clearly worth checking if it's too late for you to do so today.

You're back early, aren't you Ian?

I am not sure whether the issue was at our end (but at least two other places had problems) or at their end in London, but the live broadcast of Don Giovanni from the Royal Opera House tonight was totally unwatchable, with the picture repeatedly breaking up / freezing / disappearing / going out of sync.

You couldn't even shut your eyes and listen to the music - there were thirty one interruptions to the sound during the overture alone. (Yes, I was counting. It was the only thing you could do.) And it stayed like that into the start of the action, which was the point at which the audience gave up, en masse.

The worst bit was the short sections of ten seconds or so when everything was ok before the hope - oooh, is it going to be all right?!? - was dashed by yet another break up / freeze / disappearance / out of sync issue.

Argh. Let's see what they do about it.