James Flattery

An absolutely terrific Shostakovich 10 from Vasily Petrenko and the RPO tonight.

I took the plunge and bought a Thompson Bros Mystery Malt. I was delighted to receive a 16 year old Balmenach, which is a nice muscular malt.

It's only my second Balmenach, but I am becoming a fan of the distillery. #whisky

LIVE: Silvesterkonzert: 200 Jahre Johann Strauss | Honeck | Konradi | NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester YouTube video by ARD Klassik

youtube.com/live/v4Pfzvn...

This is very enjoyable and I suspect it may be better than the fare served up in Vienna this morning.

Oops, a bit of a mistake to wake up early for the cricket.

When you look around, there's a paucity of decent official Frosch recordings, both audio and most certainly visual.

I attended the ROH production, and it was possibly the finest show I have seen there.

I've been listening tonight to the recording of the ROH 2014 production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, which I taped off the radio...

It's still my favourite recording of one of my favourite operas.

A really enjoyable Tannhäuser at the Deutsche Oper tonight. Camilla Nylund was superb as both Elisabeth and Venus.

What a superb Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsche Oper tonight.

Kirill Petrenko with the Berlin Philharmonic after conducting Petruskha.

Great concert from Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic. Janacek's Lachian Dances were beautiful but also fun.

Petrenko and the orchestra let rip in Bartok's Miraculous Manderin.

There were also fireworks during the Petruskha suite.

Ed Gardner and Jennifer France with the LPO after an enchanting Mahler 4

I like it. I really enjoyed the stewed apple notes. I am going to have to grab a CS Loch Lomond at some point.

Is War of the Worlds really one of the worst films ever? The new version of War of the Worlds has received a 0% critic score on review site Rotten Tomatoes.

I watched this film last night and thought it was absolutely dreadful.

I understand that the producers sat on the film for a long time before releasing. They should have just canned it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sally Hawkins was absolutely sensational in Bring Her Back. I thought it was a grim but powerful film.

I'm off to the flicks tonight to see Bring Her Back. Let's hope it lives up to the hype.

a white dog with a red bow around its neck is looking at the camera with its mouth open ALT: a white dog with a red bow around its neck is looking at the camera with its mouth open

Just back from the cinema after seeing Superman. There is no doubting who the star of the film is.

I'm trying my first Loch Lomond 18 tonight. I really like the standard 12 year old, so I've got high hopes.
#whisky

It's Kubelik for me. I don't think that there is a weakness in that set.

I never used to be the biggest KFV fan, but the last couple of times I have seen him, I have been impressed. It was nice to hear Siegfried being sung rather than barked.

Musically splendid Siegfried at La Scala. I wasn't blown away by the production, but it wasn't terrible.

My first visit to La Scala for Siegfried.

I should add that panzerotti is the devil's food, but it's so good.

Have arrived in Milan today. Tomorrow night is my first visit to La Scala for Siegfried.

The Glyndebourne Parsifal was musically excellent. Beautiful conducting and playing from Ticciati and the LPO, along with great singing throughout.

However, the production was very poor with some really odd ideas.

On my way to Glyndebourne for Parsifal. Lovely day for it...

I don't know who to vote for.
#Eurovision

My take on last night's Die Walküre at ROH was it was good, rather than great. The Erda/mother nature character seems very influenced by the Frank Castorf Ring.

Prudenskaya, Romaniw and Maltman were in fine form.

Pappano's conducting was an improvement from his 2018 effort in this work.

I'm a bag of nerves watching the Arsenal.

A fine Turandot tonight at ROH with the three main singers in fine form. Gemma Summerfield as Liù was particularly impressive.

I'm on my way to ROH to see Turandot. A work I have not seen in over a decade.

I gave this a spin last night. I thought the singing was good, but nothing spectacular. I thought overall, it was all too refined.