Stop whatever you are doing. Put down that paint brush. Forget your digital camera. Cease working on your novel. Abandon your erotically aroused beloved. That plan to be a millionaire before you are thirty? - Make it thirty one. Instead, pay attention to this.

Tenor Placido Domingo has been awarded the European Culture Foundation's culture prize for his life's work.

Domingo, 62, was awarded the honour for being "an outstanding singer, actor, conductor, director and promoter" of music, said foundation deputy chairman Walter P von Wartburg.

The Spanish opera star was also congratulated in a letter from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who wrote: "Your talent, your sincerity and warmth build bridges between all borders, languages and cultures."

On Saturday the singer hosts a concert held on Lake Constance's Mainau Island, as part of an opera festival in the region shared by Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

I have a very good friend who has a standardised reaction for this kind of thing. It goes:

Be still my heart.

Be still my heart.