A few weeks ago I was at a party with some new friends and we got to talking about opera. One offered to get tickets for one of the performances at the Teatro Colon, and we went last night.

It was La Boheme, performed by the Colon’s own opera company and it was beautiful. Singing, staging, costumes —everything was superb.

The Colon is a spectacular theatre, very traditional with lots of marble and velvet, and an amazing fresco ceiling. But the thing that makes it stand out is its acoustics, which are totally natural — no electronics in the entire theatre. It’s almost unbelievable to know that what we were hearing was just the normal singing voices, without benefit of microphones. Pavarotti played the Colon once, and he apparently said the acoustics were too perfect, so you couldn’t make a mistake!

We sat in a box above the orchestra circle — my first experience of a box at the theatre! It was lovely, very comfortable and gave a great view of the stage.

After the show, we went for drinks to a great places called Million, which has a lovely outdoor space and it was still warm enough to enjoy the summer evening outdoors.

We’re planning to repeat the experience when the Colon’s ballet season starts.