On Friday night we attended a classical music concert at the Avignon Opera House built in 1846-1847. It is a very ornate and imposing building in the Place de la Republique. The interior is much more compact than the impression given from the outside, and a little cramped - similar in style to a London West End Theatre. It is also very ornate and well maintained, which is where the comparison ends. 

Having been to much larger performance halls in major cities, the size of the venue was a little surprising to us at first and indeed the Avignon orchestra is much smaller, at around 40 - 50 players, compared to orchestras that we have become used to in Hong Kong and London, that can easily total 100 or more players on stage. It is easy to forget that this is a minor, if rich, provincial city. A pleasant surprise is the high number of female players, especially in the strings and including the concertmaster.

Neverthess, in spite of the size of the orchestra and age of the venue, the sound was still good, but less enveloping than with a larger orchestra in a venue with more modern acoustics. It was a very enjoyable concert.

The orchestra was led by Francois-Frederic Guy, who played two piano pieces by Mozart on an upright, rather than grand, Steinway piano - to further illustrate the lack of space on the stage. The first was Rondo for Piano and Orchestra KV382 and the second was very familar Piano Concerto no: 21, which with Piano Concerto no: 20 are some of Mozarts most famous pieces. After a short interval, he then conducted the full orchestra for Beethoven's 4th Symphony.