OPERA WAITERS SING IN GERMANY: 26th October 2011

Setting the alarm for 4:30am to go to the airport reminds me of my Celtic Tenors days. All the stuff you have to in advance: packing your tooth brush, booking the long term car park, protracted “goodbyes” to loved ones (who sleepily ignore you), put petrol in the car – AH! I forgot to do that and only because the local garage opens very early did I actually catch my plane. But it was lovely to see Donna, Vinny and Simon’s smiley faces at Dublin airport as we met at Lufthansa desk to fly to Frankfurt. Opera Waiters is Germany! Who would have thought? Will they get it? Will our rather off the wall Irish humour make any sense “auf Deutsche”?

Any doubts we had were quickly dispelled when we started performing in the beautiful venue at Karlsruhe. It was a huge success and the delegates from all over the world were immediately involved in the humour, our dramatic scenario and the powerful operatic music. Poor Mario, the down-trodden waiter, was soon taken to their hearts – everyone loves the under-dog, especially when he can belt out “Nessun Dorma”! And Simon was the man of the moment when he sang a world-class “New York, New York”.

Such was the generosity and hospitality of the giant multi-national homeopathy company “HEEL” that they simply wouldn’t let us go to bed. Timothy Payne, the long-suffering hotel barman, with a name like a 1930s private detective, finally closed the bar and told us to **** ** – which I presumed was French, not German!
Can’t wait to go back. And to do more international Opera Waiters.