Sala: Music Centre / Musiikkitalo: Camerata Hall, Helsinki

Tenor Joseph Calleja, conductor Giuliano Carella and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra presented an interesting choice of repertoire on Monday. The composers were celebrated Italian and French masters of opera, and the programme alternated between overtures for orchestra and arias starring Calleja.

In accordance with clichés about prima donnas, Nigel Kennedy’s concert at the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki starts 15 minutes after the lights have faded away in the hall. The Nigel Kennedy Quintet enters and its leader makes a couple of jokes to break the ice.

If you move in academic, corporate or philanthropic circles, you will certainly have attended speeches and lectures about leadership, or come across relevant literature about it. Well, if you were in the Helsinki Music Center’s Concert Hall at 5pm last Saturday, you’d be sure that attending the previous week’s rehearsals would have saved you the need for leadership books and conferences.