<<  -- 2 --  Tess Crebbin    SHOPPING FOR OPERA ...

That day, I was looking to buy a CD by the American baritone Thomas Hampson, in preparation of an upcoming article, and made straight for the H section of the individual performers department. As I got there, an elegant older gentleman with a British accent beat me to the spot by a split second. He was looking for a guy called 'Hann', who was on the same rack, right behind Hampson, and so all Zafir, the dog, and I could do was to bide our time. Noticing that he was British and thinking he might be another stranded ex-pat in Munich, lost in a sea of bewildering new cultural items to deal with, I struck up a conversation.

We talked about Hann, and then Hampson, and then Hann again, each of us trying to convince the other of our singer's superiority and to get the other to buy our man's CD instead. He seemed to know an awful lot about opera, a hell of a lot more than I did, so I asked the inevitable question: 'Are you an opera singer or what?'

'Used to be,' he replied, happily enough. 'But I've given it up now.'

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