Paying homage ... Placido Domingo (left) and Rolando Villazon perform during the Classical Brit Awards. Photograph: Ian West/PA
Classical maestros Tom Service and Imogen Tilden report live, minute by minute, from the 2006 Classical Brit Awards
8pm: Greetings from the Classical Brits at London's Royal Albert Hall. The evening's fun kicked off only seconds ago with Placido Domingo ("The world's leading tenor") strolling on stage to perform Vurria, by Rendine/Pugliese. The hall is still filling up - while the arena area is occupied by tables where record company execs and award winners are dining, the rest of the auditorium is full of real, genuine, ticket-buying public. Michael Parkinson is hosting. He's promised us a very special event ... my colleague Tom Service and I will do our best to let you know if this is indeed the case.
9.15pm: Tom Service writes: I've got to admit, this is a first for me. The sheer thrill of seeing Katherine Jenkins in the flesh, in an outrageous pink gown, displaying her glowing perma-tan to perfection, is something near to an ephiphany after only having seen her sing the Welsh national anthem before rugby matches in Cardiff. Is this a brave new world for classical music?
The Classical Brits think so. We've had an action-packed first half: Placido Domingo singing in front of the surrealist folly of a set, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa accompanied by a recorder player, and David Mellor in full-on smarm mode with Antonio Pappano and Domingo, again. Something of a Domingo-fest this, as he's going to get the Lifetime Achievement Award at the end of the show. Now that's worth waiting for ...
Highlights so far? The toe-curling sentimentality of tenor Vittorio Grigolo, whose idea of acting is to grimace and gurn his way through Bernstein and Donizetti. To be fair, he's got a nice line in pandering to the audience. No doubt about the nadir: Karl Jenkins unspeakably banal In Paradisym, sung by a wan and thin-voiced Dame Kiri. If that's the way forward for classical music, I'm not sure I can take much more.
9.45pm: : Nicky Spence arrives backstage in the press area to be photographed. Cameras flash, everyone calls his name and Spence, spiky-haired and kilt-clad, grins with impressive determination. "Who was he?" one photographer asks as he returns to process his photos. I must admit I'm not overfamiliar with Mr Spence either, whose fresh-faced looks suggest he can't be more than 18. Tops.
Much excitement over the arrival of trumpeter Alison Balsom, who is young, very attractive and a phenomenal musician. Three out of three, then.
My favourite misheard moment from the first half must be Michael Parkinson, on Vittorio Grigolo: "He's got the voice, the looks, the complete package. It's not fair is it?" "What?" whispers my companion, astonished. "Did he say the BIG package?" Alas not.
10pm: The press embargo on announcing the winners has been lifted. And they are: James MacMillan's Symphony No 3 (contemporary music award); Andreas Scholl (singer of the year); Dario Marianelli for Pride & Prejudice (soundtrack/musical theatre of the year); Takacs Quartet, Beethoven late string quartets (Ensemble/Orchestral album of the year); Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra/Domingo/Pappano, Tristan and Isolde (Critics' Award); Alison Balsom (Young British Classical Performer); Leif Ove Andsnes (instrumentalist of the year); Katherine Jenkins (album of the year); Placido Domingo (Lifetime Achievement award).
10.30pm: Tom Service writes: So one tenor cried and another brought the house down ... OK, I don't think I'm a complete convert to the whole Brits thing - the whiff of record-sales driven commercialism reeked through every pore of a sweaty Albert Hall - but the hair on the back of my neck did stand up in the second half, and for all the right reasons. Rolando Villazon's performance of Recondita Armonia from Puccini's Tosca was electrifying. Despite the cheap-sounding amplification, and the fact that Simon Wright's English Chamber Orchestra could have been in the Queen Elizabeth Hall rather than the Royal Albert for all the connection they had with the soloist, Villazon showed why he's tipped to take over the mantle of Pavarotti and Domingo: rapturous, full-bodied singing that was thrillingly dramatic as well as sensuous.
And we got to hear him in duet with Domingo in that cheesy old warhorse, Non Ti Scordar di Me. Compared to the musical hash of the first half, this was quality music-making. Domingo's tears were the real stars: his paean to the British public who have loved and adored him for 35 years seemed totally genuine as he picked up his lifetime achievement award.
Not sure about Katherine Jenkins's waterworks, though. Did she really not know she was going to win the Album of the Year Award? Not since Gwyneth at the Oscars has such brilliant award-show acting been seen.
And so as Michael Parkinson mills around among the dirty plates and half-filled wine-glasses of the auditorium, trying to dodge fans with their digital cameras, it's obvious what tonight was really about. Music? Nope. A grandiloquent slap on the back from the classical record industry to the classical record industry? That's more like it. Nice work if you can get it.
