Summer Concert

How lovely it was to visit Opera Viva again for their very enjoyable “Summer Concert.” The programme included well known classic opera Arias, songs from operettas, musicals How and other stand-alone pieces written by well-known composers such as Verdi, Mozart, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Guy d’Hardelot, J Strauss, Gilbert and Sullivan, Lloyd Webber, Offenbach, Handel, Leaner and Loewe, Boubill & Schonberg and finally Flanders and Swan. There were Solo numbers, duets and Chorus pieces all performed beautifully by some incredibly talented singers and performers, they included Pam Ashcroft, Nikki Burns, Karen Hawkins, Carla Hay, Pat Maitland, Bernadette O’Keefe, Ros Purcell, Annette Rise- Dunne, Martin Cassell, David Gilmore, Peter McColgan, David Palmer and Steve Riordan.

The concert began with a very enjoyable rendition of “Brindisi” from “La Traviata” with solos from David Palmer and Pam Ashcroft and ended with the rousing “Do You Hear the People Sing” from “Les Miserables” and In-between we were treated to quite an eclectic programme of music. All soloists in the programme did an excellent job and appeared to be enjoying themselves while showing off their talents, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed each and every performance and I wish it was possible to mention them all, however it would not be practical but just to give an example of the mix of music I would like to mention Pam Ashcroft’s beautiful rendition of “Memory” from the musical “Cats”. Steve Riordan gave us “When All Night Long” from “Iolanthe” and a comedic rendition of the “Hippopotamus Song”, we all enjoyed joining in with the chorus of mud mud glorious mud. David Palmer was also on good form with the songs “Because” by Guy d’Hardelot and “Stars” from “Les Miserable”. The chorus gave us an enjoyable rendition of “Va Pensiero” from “Nabucco” by Verdi and the ladies of the chorus produced a lovely performance of “The Nun’s Chorus” from “Casanova” by J Strauss with the solo very nicely sung by Bernadette O’ Keeffe. I liked the way that the performers introduced each other and that they gave some background for each aria or song so the audience could understand the context of the piece.

Musical direction was in the hands of Alison Davies who also performed “The Barcarolle” duet with Ros Purcell from “The Tales of Hoffman” by Offenbach. Musical accompaniment is an especially important skill that can help the singer feel secure and enable a quality performance and here the exceptionally talented Robert Chester expertly and safely accompanied all pieces on the piano. I am sure all the singers felt confident knowing that Robert was there to support them.

Congratulations to all involved in producing a very enjoyable summers evening concert and making opera and classical music available to everybody thank you very much for inviting us, my friend and I had a lovely friendly evening.

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