Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

I think it isn’t going too far to say that the Royal Opera House is one of my favourite places in the whole world (on a list that includes the British Museum, my parents’s settee, and my own bed). I have fallen in love here, cried here, discovered new favourites, and generally been emotionally overwhelmed by some of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen.

Zenkō-ji in Nagano

I travelled to Japan a few years ago, and for various reasons it was an incredibly important trip to me. I got to see some amazing sights, meet some wonderful people and tasted some delicious food. There were also lots of new experiences – including, but not limited to, robot restaurants, bullet trains, Harajuku shopping, and naked public bathing (which I WILL NOT be blogging about) – including a fantastic early-morning Buddhist ceremony at Zenkō-ji temple in Nagano.

Haus der Musik

I’m playing in Mahler 9 in a concert soon, and am fortunately sitting next to a fellow Mahler nut (the rest of our section have yet to be converted, and I’m guessing the difficulty of playing the music won’t do much to help the cause). We’ve been chatting about our love for Mahler in rehearsals, and he’s the first person I’ve met who was as excited about seeing Mahler’s hat as I was!  

Unravelling Ravel in London

I like this description of Maurice Ravel – “he’s a small composer, but not a minor one.” In the past I’d worked on a Ravel project and was delighted to get to know more of his music

Hmmmpton Court

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been to Hampton Court – my sister used to work there so we could get free entry, and it’s a good place to take visitors. It might not immediately jump out to you as a musical location (you can’t help but think first of Henry VIII and his numerous wives, then some Georgian royals, and then perhaps a documentary with Lucy Worsley), but with some basic archaeology we can follow in some musical footsteps.

Met Opera and Lincoln Center

When we booked our trip to New York, I said “I don’t care what we do whilst we’re there as long as we go to the Met”.

Monteverdi at St Mark’s

When I visited Venice in 2013, San Marco was fronted with scaffolding and most of the square and surrounding streets were flooded – not exactly a recipe for success (except for the vendors selling waterproof booties).