Guy's Blog

Sometimes you wonder whether it’s all worth it.

Last night, I reckon that the Wessex Concert Orchestra gave one of it’s best ever performances in Chippenham with a programme of exciting and accessible orchestral music. But, despite our best efforts at publicizing the event (we even got a mention on the local TV news & weather programme) the audience totalled no more than ninety (and by my reckoning, half of those were probably friends or family of orchestra members).

Perhaps it is the venue that is putting people off. Let’s face it, we pay a considerable sum to hire St Andrew’s Church (much more in fact than for comparable or better venues elsewhere)for a venue that has only one outside toilet, no on-site parking, hard pews and a fair number of surly staff. (In fact one of the few “unloading” parking slots was taken by a member of church staff who did not have to lug a harp, a 'cello, lighting gantries, 2 heavy music-stand boxes, a set of display boards, a library box and other assorted concert paraphernalia into the church!) Thank you ever so much – and I’m sorry if our little concert inconvenienced you. The extra trek carrying all that equipment was much appreciated and made all the more pleasant by a very keen Traffic Warden hovering like a crazed wild-western gun-slinger, with ticket-pad at the ready. The only redeeming feature for St Andrew’s is the acoustic which is undeniably good. Nevertheless, I believe last night’s concert has finally forced our hand: No more Chippenham concerts for the foreseeable future. What a damning indictment on the Orchestra’s home town! I for one, as the orchestra’s manager, look forward to future concerts in Devizes, Malmesbury, Swindon and Keevil instead. In fact, anywhere but Chippenham. Although organizations like Perforum are making progress in developing the town's Neeld Hall, there is still no decent concert venue in Chippenham that has a good acoustic, is affordable, convenient, available and welcoming (and has the capacity required)!

On the positive side, the audience that did turn up will probably have enjoyed the concert. Our Musical Director, Andrew Baatz, had to rein us in on occasions – perhaps especially so during Darth Vader’s March from John Williams’ dramatic “Star Wars Suite” – the force was definitely with us last night! There was also (I like to believe) equal amounts of sensitivity – particularly in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and in the concert's opening number, the sumptuous Tara's Theme (from Steiner's magical soundtrack to "Gone with the Wind".) Our home-grown soloists all did us proud, perhaps none more so than Nicola Ashton (leader) for whom the many, many hours of practice really paid off with a lovely series of violin cadenzas. Well done to her!

So is it all worth it? Yes, of course it is. But I sometimes depair when it is easier to get grant support for workshops on African drumming or any arts event that includes the word “youth” than it is for a community orchestra. We are clearly too old (but not old enough to attract help from Help the Aged!), too elitist (if only you know how ridiculous that idea is!) or too indigenous to attract the sort of support that other organizations get. As far as I know, the WCO has never been awarded any grant for its activities (despite numerous applications). Perhaps we should try incorporating some circus skills in our next concert (accompanied no doubt by Fucik’s “Entrance of the Gladiators”.) Quietly, but surely, a real community tradition of music making (which in the WCO’s case began in 1940) is under threat both from the grant-giving organizations and from public indifference. Rant over. I must keep taking the pills!

What an absolute gift of a role Papageno is and I am so lucky to have sung it with Kennet Opera in their recent English-language production of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Newbury Corn Exchange. Papageno is such a colourful character: he has the best lines, a number of great arias and a fair amount of license to be a complete buffoon on stage (to be honest, I really don’t need much encouragement!). In addition, I also got to stuff my face with pork pies, beer and wine on stage! (Not real alcohol of course, but I certainly consumed industrial quantities of iced-tea!) On grounds of taste and impartiality it would be wrong of me to “review” the production – (I’ll leave that to others e.g. the Newbury Weekly News - Review) so what follows is a personal view of the production and a bit of rant about arts funding!

Stage Director Oonagh Dockley’s contemporary setting of The Magic Flute saw the “temple” of Isis and Osiris transformed into a health-spa in which Sarastro (played by the brilliant Ian Caddy) was a latter-day lifestyle guru. Tamino’s journey from couch-potato to enlightened disciple seemed to work reasonably well, particularly when juxtaposed with Papageno’s simple earthiness, but the trials of fire and water sat awkwardly within this interpretation and the links to Freemasonry were pretty much lost. There were a number of other inconsistencies too, but let’s face it, Schikaneder’s original libretto stretches belief beyond its elastic limit anyway! In honesty I would have liked to do a ‘traditional’ setting of Magic Flute (partly because I loved the iconic Magic Flute imagery in Milos Forman’s 1984 film adaptation of Peter Schaffer’s play Ámadeus – especially Papageno’s colourful plumage.). In the event, the contemporary setting provided a decent enough vehicle for the bewilderingly odd plot – and also enabled Kennet Opera to keep costume and set costs to a minimum, which is a significant consideration for any community opera company.

In fact, this was opera on a shoestring budget and all credit should be given to Kennet Opera’s hardworking committee for staging such a show at all given the paucity of funding support they receive. I understand that at least one of their grants was halved this year, and amongst other things, this meant a much reduced orchestra. The highly talented Musical Director, Ed Lambert, rearranged the orchestral score for the eight or so musicians who formed the pit orchestra. Within budgetary constraints, this arrangement worked well, but at times, I felt the ‘orchestra’ lacked the rich texture needed to convey the full grandeur of Mozart’s music and, from a performer’s point of view, there were times on stage when it was extremely difficult to hear the orchestra. On a number of occasions, this led to some disconnects between singers (self included) and orchestra - especially when the MD was playing the harpsichord part rather than conducting! The set could hardly be described as lavish either, but Set Designer (and Stage Manager), Ro Robinson, produced a minor miracle given the limited funding she had. The obvious lesson is that if you want to see quality performance and develop a vibrant arts community capable of generating attendant commercial benefits, then you have to fund the arts properly.

Although the majority of the performers were amateurs like myself, in common with many community opera groups, Kennet Opera can rightly claim a semi-professional status, engaging as it does a number of professionals. I was delighted to work alongside so many very talented and professionally-trained singers in this production and I learnt a lot from them, particularly from Ian Caddy whose extensive professional career includes performing with all of the UK’s main opera companies. Generous to a fault with his encouragement, I greatly valued his advice. Olivia Hinman (Pamina) has the most wonderfully sweet voice – perfect for Mozart – and she played the part with a lovely mixture of strength and vulnerability. I thought her Act 2 aria (“Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden”) was divine, and it was a real joy to sing the Act 1 duet ("Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen") with her. Several people have told me they thought it was gorgeous. Ben Thapa (of X-Factor and G4 fame) played a slovenly Tamino whose love for Pamina and journey towards enlightenment gradually transformed him. Ben has a lovely voice with plenty of power and control – and he seems to produce the sound so effortlessly. I suppose the disadvantage of engaging such a busy performer is that he did not get as much preparation time with the company as the rest of us. Consequently, there were elements of Tamino’s characterization that were not as developed as they might have been. As one of the Three Ladies, Joanna Sleight was fabulous – indeed, it was a pleasure having her stand on me!!! Musically speaking, the two quintets I sang with the Three Ladies and Tamino were among the most satisfying parts of the opera for me. Irene Cassidy and Vikki Champion completed the Three Ladies line-up and all three looked suitably vampish for the contemporary setting – like something out of The Devil Wears Prada!

One of the great things about The Magic Flute is the wealth of smaller roles that can be filled from within the Company and, without exception, all the players rose to the challenge superbly well. I don’t think there’s enough space to mention everyone, but I certainly couldn’t write about the production without mentioning my lovely Papagena (Sam Spaak) whose mischievous presence on stage always signaled fun and whose consummate professionalism and excellent stage presence always put me at my ease. I think that the famous “Pa-pa-gena” duet in the finale was probably my favourite part of the whole opera.

I’m already in danger of writing an excessively long blog about The Magic Flute – there’s so much more I could say – but for me at least, it has been a wonderful experience and the folks at Kennet Opera have been incredibly supportive, friendly, sociable and welcoming. I hope that I will be successful at future auditions and sing with them again in the future!

What Kennet Opera tries to do in bringing affordable and accessible opera to the area is hugely commendable and it really deserves better support, both in terms of audience and funding. There is always the risk that even with the hard work and dedication of members and supporters, under-funded productions will lack the professional appearance that will help to build future audiences. Of course, it says a lot about how much our society values “culture”. In Germany a town the size of Newbury would probably have its own professional opera company!

www.guyedwards.info
www.kennetopera.co.uk
www.lambertmusic.co.uk
www.iancaddy.com

I’ve always been a fidget (as my primary school teacher, Miss Jones, was fond of telling me), so it should be no surprise that I couldn’t do the sensible thing and simply take life easy between operas. Right now I’m fretting over the solo bass part in Haydn’s Mass in G which I’m singing on Saturday. (Review here)(Yes, I know I’m a tenor, but I often sing baritone and occasionally bass too!). It’s been a busy few weeks in fact...

Debra Skeen (my wonderful singing teacher) and I were engaged to sing at a formal dinner in Thame on 25 October. It was a very short programme - just a few songs during the starter – so we competed with the clatter of knives and forks and the murmur of alcohol-enlivened chatter but such is life when you’re just part of the entertainment. I think I might have interrupted a few over-dinner conversations with my rendition of Nessun Dorma which was delivered with a fair amount of volume. I almost felt sorry for those on the nearest tables – ‘None shall sleep’, indeed! Nessun Dorma is not one of my favourite arias as it suffers from over-exposure and has done so in UK ever since it was used in conjunction with the BBC’s 1990 Football World Cup coverage. However, despite its apparent popularity, I doubt to this day that many of those listening to it would have a clue what it is about nor indeed what opera it is from. Of course I’m all in favour of making opera more popular, but I’m not sure that having heard Nessun Dorma, thousands of football fans rushed out to see Turandot. Nevertheless, Nessun Dorma has become (or more accurately, remains) an essential part of any operatic tenor’s repertoire.

On the theme of bringing opera to a wider audience, a handful of Kennet Opera principals were due to sing at the Lions’ annual fireworks event at Newbury Racecourse on 1 November in front of an expected crowd of over 3000. I admit, I’m not wholly convinced by the “fireworks and opera” idea, but hey, if it brings opera to a wider audience, then it can’t be all bad. Given that this was an outdoor event (and the acoustic quality of Berkshire is generally rather poor) we were planning to sing using some new fangled invention called “amplification” (microphones and stuff) which of course, we don’t normally need. We also planned to rely on a digital piano rather than having to carry a grand piano onto stage. Now to be honest, the stage was not quite what I had expected: it was a truck with a drop-down side, a canopy and some steps. Okay – this in itself was not a problem but as the heavens opened and torrential rain ensued for the next five hours, we quickly realised that, despite singers being relatively waterproof, electronic equipment isn’t (especially not digital pianos) and the canopy covering the stage was woefully inadequate for the purpose. Regrettably therefore, we had to cancel our participation particularly as we could ill-afford to electrocute so many principals ahead of our main production (Mozart’s Magic Flute) the following week. Distraught at having been robbed of an opportunity to do some hit-and-run opera, we repaired to the nearest hostelry to console each other and “re-hydrate”. Oh well, maybe next year.

The following Monday (3 November) I competed in four classes in the Marlow Music Festival. It seems I am doomed always to catch a cold before these events (probably by standing around in the rain) and frustratingly (yet again) my voice was tight and horrible at the top of my range. But if I sounded like a sheep giving birth, then the adjudicator (Julia Dewhurst) was kind enough not to mention it. My cold had obviously affected my memory too, as a number of Italian and German words proved trickier on the night than they had in rehearsal! The class sizes were disappointingly small which perhaps explains why, despite a sub-standard performance, I still managed to come away with a clutch of medals and first place in the Opera and Lieder classes and second place in the Show Song and Light Opera classes. As ever, the real value of these events is the feedback you get from the adjudicator, and this festival was no exception. Some classes (such as the Lieder) were woefully undersubscribed, but why? Is it that you have to sing in German? Or is Lieder seen as a bit too elitist? Either way, to be scared off the genre for either of these reasons seems completely daft when you hear the beauty of the music. Come on all you singers out there – take me to your Lieder!

www.debraskeen.co.uk
www.guyedwards.info