Luciano Pavarotti thrilled 12,000 opera-lovers with almost two hours of beautiful arias at an open-air concert in the grounds of Stormont on Saturday. After a dismally cold and rainy day, the evening sun created beautiful shades of pink and orange before it set, allowing the lights of Parliament Buildings on the hill to lend an almost magical touch to the scene.
When Pavarotti took the stage shortly before 8 p.m. in a leather jacket and white cap and driving a golf buggy, some might have wondered whether they had come to the right place.
They were quickly put right, however, when Pavarotti sang the first chords of Addio, fiorito asil, from Madame Butterfly. It must have brought back fond memories for those lucky enough to have heard him sing the part of Pinkerton at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, in 1963 on his first visit to the city.
Saturday's concert was made even more special by the appearance of the young Italian soprano, Ms Carmela Remigio, whose superb voice made her the immediate darling of the crowd. It also allowed Pavarotti, who had selected the programme, to indulge the audience with some beautiful love duets like O soave fanciulla, from La Boheme.
The event was slightly marred by budding young executives conducting audible conversations on their mobile phones rather than listening to one of the world's greatest tenors, but that did not seem to spoil the enjoyment of Gay Byrne, Dave Fanning, Gerry Ryan and John Kelly, who were among the fans who had travelled north.
Lyric FM's champagne tent was packed with earnest-looking opera aficionados dressed in evening wear who sipped bubbly at £15 for a half-bottle while analysing the tenor's performance.
Others opted for something more substantial as the queues spilling from the Guinness tent grew ever longer and the smell of hamburgers wafted through the night air.
Despite the cold, Il Maestro seemed to enjoy the occasion just as much as his enthusiastic audience.
"You are beautiful. You are Irish. You must sing," he told the crowd who did their best to comply. "Oh, it's the Cornetto song," exclaimed an excited Belfast journalist when she heard the first chords of O sole mio.
Others were equally enthusiastic. "I have already heard him sing in Milan and in Covent Garden, but he appears to be getting even better with age," said Mr John Kearney from Belfast. "I wonder whether the new love in his life has anything to do with that," mused his wife.
"Loud voices are nothing new at Stormont, but people actually paying to hear them and having a good time in the process, that's a first," joked a Dublin journalist.
At least for a night, the discordant tones normally emanating from Stormont had been replaced by harmony.