David + Teddy = Win!

Last night, Laulita and I went total fangirl to see David Hobson and Teddy Tahu Rhodes perform a combination of opera, showtunes, and traditional songs together! The night started off well with dinner in a cafe where I had trifle. Yum! I haven't had trifle in years and it was a wonderful confection of rhubarb, cake, custard and cream. It was so good, I recommended it to the strangers we were sharing our table with - and they enjoyed theirs too!

Of the performance itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it although somethings became apparent during it, some good and some bad.
Good:

• David is a natural performer. Cracking jokes, dancing, playing the guitar - thumbs up all around!
• Teddy's voice is so wonderful and thick and gooey and dramatic! It's just....yeah :D
• The two had such a wonderful rapport together. Very nice to see how friendly they are with each other!
• Their 'people' are so nice! But more on that later!

Bad:

• David's voice during the opera pieces bothered me. I can't say this without sounding super-pretentious but it lacked...body. I don't know if it was an aural illusion but compared to Teddy's singing, David's operatic voice sounded 'thinner'. His voice is smooth and he hit all the notes with ease but I kept waiting to be blown away and I wasn't :(. Having said that though, he sang the non-operatic pieces absolutely wonderfully with so much more power so Laulita wondered whether he was concentrating too much on his French and Italian diction that it affected his singing? I don't know. But their Pearlfishers duet was beautiful :D
• Teddy's voice does not lend itself well to the trads. The bass notes in particular sounded a little bit like he was taking the piss. But when it worked, it was gorgeous!
• Their black suits looked kinda cheap and Blues-brothersy.
  
• Their photos in those suits in the programme (above) - both are so much better looking in person!
  

Anyway, during the intermission, there was an announcement saying that they would be signing their new CD in the foyer after the performance. We turned to each other and gasped - *gasp!* - because I had already purchased the programme but we weren't sure if that would be enough for them to sign. We raced upstairs to buy the CD and then as soon as the show finished (after 2 encores), we rushed out to join the queue which was already quite long.

But once we got to the head of the queue, the and their handlers were completely obliging! Not only did they sign the CD and the programme (with personalised messages) but the handlers took a photo of all four of us. Laulita got to hug Teddy! Unforch I was next to David who was busily signing away so he's not looking at the camera but as he gave me the items he rubbed my arm and said thanks to me very nicely :D And so Laulita and I stumbled off into the night giggling about our run in with the opera stars. Win!