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!
A sheep giving birth? Hm... must have been a harrowing performance! The dramatic impact! No wonder you won the judge's heart.
PS German may be a deterrent, I agree. The only song people seem to know in German is "Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles"