@Stella Una furtiva lagrima
Sublime. I can find no words beyond that to describe his voice, his emotional depths…best to stop trying! Thanks Stella for this illustration of his operatic magnificence, quite unsurpassable IMO.
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It’s very rewarding to find that here in rural Normandy there is a profusion of classical recitals, concerts, choral events on offer in local venues, by amateur and professional artistes, and at very modest charges.
And YouTube is a great resource that always surprises and delights 
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Have a look at Jacob Collier, he is being described as the modern Mozart for his musicality.
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Currently listening to this on a very wet, dark and stormy afternoon whilst seeking inspiration for lots of things …
For those who don’t like the music then watch the video 
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Why has this rain descended on us… our daughter is now back in UK. 
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I actually scuttled downstairs to sleep last night. There was a deluge of rain and the noise was deafening, of course once the storm also kicked in I was off like a shot ! 
We were driving for an hour 10pm last night… I felt as if I was holding my breath all the way home. Yikes - so much water, thought we were going to gently float off the road on some of the tight bends. 
Do you not have a roof Ann ?
This child handles Thunder and Lightning superbly 
Although I’m a bit reluctant to offer a dry and dusty comment, rain can be a nuisance if it spoils a picnic or happens when you’ve just waxed and polished your car.
But it’s necessary if not essential for agriculture, our food supply and the farmer’s livelihood. And we need to drink it to survive on a day to day basis.
“We plough the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand”.
Religion aside, man can’t make it rain, as my 83-year-old Norman neighbour often reminds me, with a glance at the cloudless sky.
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Since her teenage years, my daughter has earned her title - “bringer of rain”. Any drought areas have only to invite her to visit and dark clouds spring up and lurk until she arrives… 
This year has been awry. We enjoyed her company with sweltering temperatures - sitting outside until midnight 
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Reads a bit like that Peter… I sleep in the grenier and although I have a roof with velux and insulation when it rains as heavily as last night the noise is awful.
As I am scared of storms, live on an exposed hill and have a large chimney with ariel attached over my head (on the roof), plus a fertile imagination it makes sense to seek shelter in the more sheltered part of the house … 
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Inspirational - turning to music for a new career - Who is he ?? 
Never heard of him as a cricketer 
but I think I shall be keeping an eye on his singing progress from now on.
I sleep in the attic room in France and the rain sound is magnified many times
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We’ve got an unfurnished attic across the top of the house. If we can hear the rain in our own bedroom (underneath) it is “seriously” raining. I have been known to send OH to check that the roof is not leaking (or worse) 
(while I hide under the bedclothes if it is stormy)
There’s a lot of good inspiring stuff on that album, I love it
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Yes, I know the feeling Ann, we’ve had a few houses with velux and the noise during storms etc can be frightening. One house we had a shed with a tin roof and that sounded like WW3 during bad weather !
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My house has half of its roof, a tin roof. I Like to live as close as possible to all the noise that Nature makes, much more than just humans. Its a No Contest situation. Sound of the rain in a storm v. The best that any human can do? Stormy rain every time.
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I love big storms. My children and I go out in storms to get soaked and rush around shrieking (nobody can hear us over the thunder and torrential rain).
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“The rains” in sub-tropical Africa are elemental, and European rainfall is in an entirely other category of experience. No contest.
One can only feel puny and awe-struck in an African storm. The water comes almost instantaneously, perhaps a very few heavy drops to give notice, after a brief, unmistakably foreboding stillness.
Then the heavens open and vertical stair-rods of water strike the earth, submerging it in a boiling, roiling blood-red flood. No rain drops these, just a deluge. Difficult to see more than a few yards in front of oneself. It’s like being in a cage.
The sound is like no other, a relentless drumming roar with fluid undertones. The thunder a continuous deep rumbling with ear-splitting claps that are like actual physical blows as much as assaults in the ears.
Then the deluge stops as suddenly as it began, to a diminishing coda of retreating rumbles. Soon the surface water has disappeared, gurgling now in the storm drains and gullies, the red earth steaming, the world refreshed, young and tender.
I do miss it very, very much!
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