Sadly sometimes things just don't work. I don't know why.

Like last night my mum took me to see Cesaria Evora at the Opera House. (In case you are asking "who?" she is a singer from Cape Verde; she sings traditional mornas and coladeras - thanks Wikipedia.)

I went in with an open mind having no experience of this apparently famous singer or her music. I do love African music and was looking forward to hearing her sing.

Because I want to try and stay positive I'll say that her 8 piece band were fantastic, just beautiful. But I can't hedge around this for too much longer. She was just plain old boring. Her stage presence was as exciting as that of the microphone stand. She came on, a squat little old lady in a horrid dress and no shoes, and stood centre stage singing. What was terrible was that not a single expression crossed her face the entire night: not a smile or a frown, nothing to communicate her emotional state to the audience. And because the songs were in a language I couldn't understand and each song, apart from the actual music, sounded vocally almost exactly the same, I couldn't fathom which songs were happy, which were sad or meloncholy. It was a strange and uncomfortable experience.

Obviously I was missing something because the majority of the audience were in raptures, clapping hysterically at the end of each song (and sometimes in the middle of one - what's with that?).

To finish on a positive note it started promptly at eight pm, no unnecessary support acts, and finished in exactly one and a half hours, including encore. A definite moment of less is more.