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An Evening of Operatic Favourites
The
concert on 19 May 2012 was a little different from the NYC's
usual pattern! |
It
featured favourite choruses and arias from a range of grand
operas. The audience
was seated informally at tables, in candlelight, with access to a bar
for drinks and nibbles. This
page brings together some accounts of the evening.
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THE
"OFFICIAL" REVIEW by
Martin Trent
Regular
followers of North Yorkshire Chorus will remember their last concert at
St
Mary’s Church in Thirsk, where an evening of sacred music by Rossini,
Haydn and
Puccini made up the programme. Their
latest concert, at the Hambleton Forum in Northallerton, was a
different event
altogether. It
featured rousing
favourites from the operatic repertoire, performed to a sell-out
audience
seated round cabaret tables in an informal atmosphere.
One was struck by the age-range of the
audience, and the number of children and young people who obviously
enjoyed the
colourful and varied programme. For some of them
it will have been their first taste of a concert like this: from the
chatter
and smiles at the end of the show, it may well be that they will come
back for
more.
A choir of over
sixty singers was augmented by soloists Anna Belward (soprano) and Paul
Smith
(Tenor), sensitively accompanied by Andrew Christer at the piano and,
in the
final item, Verdi’s Triumphal Scene
from Aida, by the stirring trumpet
playing of Colin Pearson. Mention
should
be made of 11 year-old Benjamin Smith, who played a finely-tuned anvil
(kindly
loaned by Thirlby blacksmith Jim Sheldrake for the occasion) in the
Anvil
Chorus from Verdi’s Il Trovatore.
All
of this was under the precise and energetic direction of their regular
conductor, Greg Smith.
The programme
was varied and lively. It
included the
haunting soprano aria 'Song To The Moon' from
Dvorak’s Rusalka and the teasing of
'Adele’s Laughing Song' from
Die Fledermaus, both of
which pieces
allowed Anna Belward to show an astonishing range of vocal pitch and
colour. 'Poor Wandering One' from The Pirates Of Penzance became a
charming parlour duet, while Paul Smith was able to let loose with a
rousing 'Nessun Dorma'. By contrast,
the whole
choir gave splendid force to the grand chorus pieces in the programme,
ending
in fine form with the last item, from Aida.
Proof – not that
proof is needed – of the range of this ensemble will be their next
concert, a joint
performance with Wetherby Choral Society of Edward Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius, at Ripon Cathedral on
Saturday 17th
November 2012.
(A shortened version of this
review appeared in the Darlington
& Stockton Times on 15 June 2012)
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REACTION
OF A "FIRST-TIMER"
Congratulations
to the
NYC on a very successful performance of Operatic Favourites on Saturday
19
May 2012. The setting for the audience was both
amenable and
sociable, and a very conducive arrangement of seating to enable the
audience to
both see and hear the choir to full advantage. The choir’s
singing was
excellent and they obviously enjoyed the material they presented.
We
only wish
that the programme had featured more of the choir. The
soloists were both
humorous and informative in their introduction to their pieces, which
were
very
well executed.
It
was altogether a
thoroughly enjoyable first experience of an evening of choral singing
by the
North Yorkshire Chorus.
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(Photo by Roy Hutchings)
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See
a copy of the full programme (pdf - opens in a
new window) |
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COMMENTS BY ANOTHER AUDIENCE
MEMBER
The
choir made a confident start with chorus from Verdi’s La
Traviata. The piece included the soloists who sang with
bravura,
and set the scene for an enjoyable evening.
The second piece, Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas, was
beautifully sung by the soprano soloist, Anna
Belward.
The
solo arias which followed included several well known pieces. Paul
Smith, the
tenor soloist, sang ‘La donna e mobile’ from Rigoletto
with great flair and the timbre of a true operatic tenor.
In the second half the solo arias included Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ .
This
piece has become such a favourite in recent years that we have become
very
conditioned to certain recorded performances. Paul Smith sang it with
confidence and hearing a live performance was a pleasure, but in the
final
climax there was some oversinging, even though he has a big voice which
can
carry the piece. Another highlight was Anna Belward’s performance of
Adele’s
Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus,
sung with panache and obvious enjoyment.
It
would be tedious to mention every one of the 20 items which made up the
programme. There was great variety, ranging from Purcell and Mozart to
Gilbert
and Sullivan. Overall both soloists were excellent, and the enthusiasm
and
enjoyment of the chorus came across to the audience. Mention
must be made of the immense
contribution to the evening made by the accompanist, Andrew Christer,
who
played very sympathetically. And of course the Conductor, Greg Smith,
worked
tirelessly to bring the best out of his singers.
The
concert finished with a stirring performance
of the Triumphal
Scene from Verdi’s Aida. The
addition of Colin Pearson’s
solo trumpet provided
great brilliance
and led to calls from the audience for an encore. Clearly
everyone had
thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
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