Lady Bracknell Entertains

Imagine being taken back to the Victorian era as part of an evening’s entertainment taking place in an aristocratic drawing room. Well this is just what happened to us when we attended ‘Opera Viva’s ‘Lady Bracknell Entertains’, an evening of Victorian and Edwardian music.  On arrival we were met at the door by Queen Victoria herself and Mr John Brown her Scottish personal servant and favourite, prior to being escorted into the main room where the evening’s entertainment was to be held.  The room was set out with chairs and small tables covered with snowy white table cloths with vases of flowers as centre pieces. Upon being  shown to our table we were offered refreshment in the form of drinks followed a little while later by a hearty well cooked  meal of steak pie, potatoes and vegetables rounded off by a pudding of trifle before we settled down to enjoy the evening’s entertainment.

 The audience were first welcomed by Lady Bracknell herself then the entertainment began with the company progressing on stage to ‘My old Man Said Follow the Van’  followed immediately by a lovely rendition of ‘Flower Duet’ from’ Lakme’. The evening of entertainment continued with some lovely performances of an eclectic mix of arias, songs and party pieces which included everything from ‘O Mia Bambino Caro’ by Puccini to Waiting at the Church. There were excerpts from operettas such as ‘The Merry Widow’ by Franz Lehár and Gilbert and Sullivan, which included songs from Ruddigore and the Mikado.  One of the many highlights of the evening was a very funny updated version of ‘A little list’ from ‘The Mikado’. The evening ended with a rousing rendition of ‘The Holy City’ by the full company. It would be wrong of me to pick out individual performances from this concert as the full company were the stars. It appeared that most of them had something to offer, showing off their talents with varying abilities. However each piece was performed well, with enthusiasm and was enjoyed and received well by the audience.

The costumes were very colourful and fitted in with the period and the theme of the evening well, adding to the ambiance and helping to make this a very enjoyable entertaining evening. Thank you to all involved in arranging this lovely evening’s entertainment and for inviting me. I hope to see you again in the near future.

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