Last Tuesday’s press view of the Goya exhibition stirred in me an appetite for things Spanish that was satisfied the very next day by a visit to the place itself.

Departing from Gatwick at the ungodly hour of 6am, I was in Majorca in time for breakfast.

Not that this was necessary since I had been served with one on the Monarch Airlines flight. A bottle of Prosecco also magically appeared. Despite the hour, it seemed churlish not to drink.

More fizz – champagne this time – was in generous supply at the big event for which my trip to the island was being made.

This was a gala concert by the great American baritone Thomas Hampson, the final offering in this year’s programme of Sunset Classics at the mega-swanky Hotel Barcelo Formentor.

Situated at the northern end of the island, and approached through stunning mountain scenery, the hotel has been a byword for elegance since 1929.

The people who have stayed there are very much a who’s who of 20th-century celebrity, including Charlie Chaplin, Audrey Hepburn, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Sir Winston Churchill.

Agatha Christie was a guest, too, and the hotel later supplied a setting for the 1982 film version of one of her most famous books, Evil Under the Sun (though the novel’s location is actually Devon).

Peter Ustinov, who played Poirot, remained a regular visitor in the years after the shoot.

My two-day stay will be described in a forthcoming piece for our travel pages.

I must mention how marvellously entertaining Hampson’s concert proved. The first half was selected from the operatic repertoire and featured arias by, among others, Verdi, Massenet and Mozart.

After the interval came music from the popular stage, including a quartet of numbers showcasing the genius of Cole Porter.