It was full house at a Meet the Composer concert, organized by St James Cavalier at Castille, recently. This time the composer we were to meet was Verdi, a great favourite locally largely because of his operas, of which he composed some 27.

I was happy that the narrator of excerpts from Verdi's letters was Chris Gatt, the director of St James Cavalier and who has himself produced many a play. Manwel Cauchi was the original narrator but it seems he could not make it so Chris substituted him. The only other concert I had attended at Castille, the violinist also acted as narrator and it was simply too heavy a burden.

We enjoyed his reading from Verdi's letters, which shed much light on the composer.

Bass, Noel Galea, who has a fine voice, gave us three arias, one from Nabucco, the other from Macbeth and the last from Simon Boccanegra. There were no heroines being cutely sad, or ones of near-tragic dimensions. No drama queens taking hours to die.

We are much more familiar with tenors and sopranos in Verdi's operas and of course the famous chorus from Nabucco, which we get to know, even while we are in our mother's womb, than we are with arias composed for a bass voice.

Noel Galea was accompanied by the ProMuzika ensemble who I suspect, find their inspiration from the energetic Sarah Spiteri who plays not only the violin but the viola as well. When I spoke to her at the reception which followed at St James Cavalier, she told me: "I love it!" She loves all the hard work and rehearsing that goes into the production of such an evening and in learning new pieces, as one cannot go on playing the same repertoire, especially here where it is usually the same ten percent, if that, who attend these concerts, though I was happy to see that there were a number of foreign visitors sitting on some of the gilded chairs that evening. I commented to Sarah that unlike other occasions, when I had sat on the same, or similar gilded chairs, I was very comfortable during the Verdi concert, and not crammed and almost sitting on those beside me. She told me that they had made it a point to keep the chairs well-spaced, fully aware that when they are placed too closely, unless one is almost anorexic, members of the audience cannot really listen properly.

Noel Galea was followed by the ProMuzika ensemble playing Verdi's String Quartet in E minor which is valued among the great classical chamber works of the 19th century. I listened to it for the first time ever and particularly enjoyed the last three movements. Verdi composed it while in Naples, there for the rehearsals for the première of Aïda.

I thought to myself, as I looked around me, in this beautiful room at Castille, how different an audience this was to that of a football stadium although there must have been some music lovers present, who also enjoy a good game of football. The term 'chamber music' seemed more appropriate here, for this cross-section of society was quietly enjoying their favourite vice in private. I looked at the sponsors on the programme and met a couple of them at the reception later and congratulated them on supporting this series.

There are another five concerts to come, all in different venues, including the Inquisitors Palace. The next one is Shostakovich at the Sala Isouard in February. I may either give it a miss altogether or perhaps spend an evening trying to educate myself and getting to like his music. We shall see.

I attended two receptions at the Labour Centre in Hamrun. Some people I only meet once a year, at one of these receptions so I try not to miss them. There was a large turnout for both of them, one for the media and the other largely for the diplomatic corps. One exchanges news and views, learns a thing or two and gets a few ideas from these various and varied encounters. After most guests had left, during the last reception, there was a sudden bout of clapping and someone said that it was Jason Micallef's birthday. So I brought out my camera and snapped him for posterity. He whispered to me his age, but since I cannot whisper it to you let it remain a mystery. He is but a very young man, seen from my angle and there will be plenty of elections for him to help the Party win.

Every year I meet Dr Daniel Micallef, who set up the first environment ministry I believe. He told me that my father had lent him a copy of Plato's Republic, when Daniel was about 16 years old, and how after reading it, had changed his way of thinking dramatically because it had influenced him so much. He is presently busy writing a book and is still very much interested in the environment.

I noticed that Lou Bondì was there for the media reception which brings me to his last Bondiplus which was about property, its high price and so on. There was Stefan Buontempo, who I believe, was born with a social conscience, a pigeon trying to fight off the cats. How can you have such an unbalanced programme with five or six True Blues against Stefan and Edward Fenech heroically trying to fight them off and put their point of view forward? I thought a certain Clive Puli behaved in a most appalling manner. Who votes for people like him I wonder? I nearly burst a blood vessel watching this David against Goliath show. It was unfair, to start off with, to convene such an unbalanced panel which was trying to give the absurd impression that property prices are going down. Giurnalismu ta' veru indeed. It was little more than a pathetic farce and the sooner the government restores some sort of order in the property business the fairer it will be for everyone. Now people speak of a property portfolio. We are such a greedy nation wanting to horde whatever can be horded. I love the way Bondì kept on asking Stefan "What is Labour going to do about it?" I always think that this is such a silly question. Why the devil should Labour give away it's secrets to the government. There are plenty of people on the government side, like Gordon Cordina, who seem to have plenty of ideas. Let me leave before I burst a blood vessel.

Do look out for First next Sunday. It is always a week late in January and we have several features you will enjoy including lovely photos of the C&R Fashion show. One of them is on our cover.