I’m still not sure where all the time has gone, but the second of our “little girls” turned eighteen recently and yet my recollections of cradling her in my arms as a newborn are still as vivid as ever. It certainly doesn’t seem like eighteen years ago. The onward march of time and physical degeneration have provided new impetus to my undertakings: I’m determined to achieve a few more things in life before bits start dropping off or before I forget what it is that I was trying to achieve. Being reminded that your second child is now eighteen simply increases the sense of panic. So I like to be busy, but as Mrs Edwards occasionally points out, I need to strike a balance, and my habit of ignoring the requirement for sleep is neither clever, nor sustainable!

As part of the eighteenth birthday celebrations, the Edwards Clan decamped en masse to London Town for a weekend packed full of activities and culture – so I really enjoyed myself despite having to suffer a spot of “opportunity shopping” - the inevitable consequence of going to London with four women. (I got my own back with a visit to HMS Belfast.) On the Friday evening (4 September) we had some great seats at the Lyceum Theatre to see Disney’s Lion King. What a fabulous, feel-good fest of colour, movement and music this is. Its talented cast clearly enjoy performing the show as much as we enjoyed watching it. I’m not going to review Lion King, but take my word for it, if you haven’t seen this show then you really should. I would go so far as to say that if you only see one West End show, this one is the pick of the current crop and you would be daft to miss it. Of course, if you’re looking for deep and meaningful material, then maybe Elton John’s music and Tim Rice’s lyrics will disappoint, but for some simply amazing choreography and design, infectious rhythm and a happy ending, then this show is pretty much unrivalled.

The following evening we saw Kander & Ebb’s Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre with the former Destiny’s Child chanteuse, Michelle Williams, in the starring role of Roxie Hart. I had seen Chicago before it moved to the Cambridge (it was previously at the Adelphi) and in the move it seems to have lost its spirit. Although I couldn’t fault Michelle Williams’ pitching or diction, she failed to live up to my expectations of a Roxie, somehow lacking the sexy sassiness that should make Roxie a fatal attraction. Her voice also seemed to have a very nasal quality that had the effect of turning this Roxie into a whining girl rather than a full-blooded vamp. If this were the only problem with the show, I could have still come away happy, but the whole performance seemed tired, lacking the spark and essential pizzazz for which it has been rightly famed in the past. I was left with the feeling of a show much in need of a makeover – or life support. Sadly the Cambridge as a venue does little to help, being rather small and dowdy as London Theatres go and the empty seats and current cast selection may be an indication that this show is on its last legs.

Talking of dodgy principals, I took to the stage myself the following Friday evening (11 September) for another performance as Fenton in Otto Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor with White Horse Touring Opera. The wonderful new hall in Market Lavington (complete with very nice piano) was the venue for this event and although the audience was not huge, the evening seemed to go well. Reassuringly, we are getting better every time we perform the opera although, at times we could do with lifting the pace a little. There is some divine music in Merry Wives but there are also one or two sections that can drag if they are not driven forward. Graham Billing’s intelligently witty translation still makes me laugh even though I must have heard it dozens of times by now!

An altogether different performance opportunity presented itself on the Saturday evening with a White Horse Opera concert of opera and music theatre excerpts in the wonderful old medieval church of St John in Devizes. The place has a fabulous acoustic and I really enjoyed singing there. A number of the company’s younger singers (and some of those who do not usually sing principal roles) took the chance to perform their party-pieces. White Horse Opera is lucky to have a healthy pool of developing talent and the confidence of some of these young performers is quite amazing. Indeed, my young singing partner in Merry Wives, (Bryony Cox), gave a lovely concert performance of her aria from the opera and more generally never fails to impress me with her stage presence and professional approach. The concert also provided a showcase opportunity for the hugely talented Dajana Kovac who undoubtedly stole the show with her rendition of Jeanine Tesori’s,The Girl in 14G. This quirky song makes incredible demands on the singer with its rapid changes in style from ballad to opera and jazz in telling the story of a girl whose apartment suffers from noisy neighbours and who eventually decides if you can’t beat them, join them! Dajana also drew the concert to a close with a beautiful performance of Puccini’s O Mio Babino Caro. Arne Kovac accompanied throughout and coped admirably with a few last minute surprises and in particular, (from me) a very liberal interpretation of rubato!

For my own part, I sang two old favourites, “M’Appari Tutt’Amor” from Flotow’s rarely-performed opera, Martha, and the gorgeous love song “La fleur que tu m’avais jettée” from Bizet’s ever-popular pot-boiler, Carmen. Both seemed to go pretty well: indeed I was delighted when a nice Italian lady later complimented me on my Italian pronunciation in M’Appari. As for the Bizet, I just wish I had sung it as well when I auditioned (unsuccessfully) for the role of Don José earlier in the year. I have learnt a number of things from that particular experience, including not to attempt an audition for which you have had insufficient preparation time, or to do so when you are jet-lagged and feeling absolutely knackered! In retrospect, things have worked out rather well and better opportunities have come along since then, but at the time I felt a bit bruised by the experience!

To round the weekend off, Mrs Edwards and I spent the evening in the Tower of London - no, not as “guests” of Her Majesty, but watching Carl Rosa Opera’s production of the splendid Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Yeomen of the Guard as part of the Tower Festival. I’m very glad we booked early for this event and got some decent seats because I suspect the people at the back of the audience would have needed binoculars to see the stage! What a fabulously atmospheric and apt setting for this, arguably Gilbert & Sullivan’s finest operetta – and it was amusing that a couple of real Yeomen Warders were keeping a watchful eye over proceedings! This was a splendid production in very many ways and well worth the round trip to London. When I was a mere stripling youth (a long time ago, admittedly) Mrs Edwards & I had starring roles in our respective schools’ joint production of Yeomen, so it holds special memories for us.

Carl Rosa Opera seems to follow a well-tried and tested formula of recruiting at least one celebrity to play a major character role in their operas. In this case, Paul Nicholas was a great choice for the lovelorn but ultimately unloved jester, Jack Point, and made a surprisingly good job of the singing (except for racing ahead of the conductor and orchestra on one occasion!). In echoes of Pagliacci’s Canio and England’s last court jester, Dickie Pearce (whose great party trick of making himself into a ball to be thrown around in merriment by banqueting guests ended in disaster at Berkeley Castle when an over exuberant guest accidentally propelled the unfortunate jester over the balcony to an untimely death), Jack Point is a tragic figure who, despite his merry-making, dies of a broken heart at the end of the opera.

Charlotte Page delivered a heart-warming performance as Elsie with an operatic quality that elevated this G&S favourite to a new level. It was interesting to note that when there was an amplification problem in Act 1, hers was one of the few voices that could still be heard from the stage, perhaps evidence of her background in opera as opposed to music theatre. She was ably matched by David Curry as the heroic Colonel Fairfax. Curry was superb, delivering Fairfax’s lovely arias with well-judged lightness and classic tenor panache: His acting was excellent too and he was a joy to watch, being every bit the dashing romantic hero demanded by the part. There were some truly fine performances too from Bruce Graham as Sergeant Meryll whose comedic timing was impeccable, and from Donald Maxwell as the Tower’s unpleasant and dim-witted “Head Jailor and Assistant Tormentor”, Wilfred Shadbolt. The very talented Victoria Byron elicited much sympathy as the unlucky Phoebe, and Gareth Jones delivered an authoritative performance as the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Richard Cholmondely. (This was the role I sang for our school production all those years ago, and to my dismay, I could remember every word and note perfectly well – but I can’t remember things I did yesterday!). Susan Gorton (well cast as Dame Carruthers) seemed surprisingly unsettled in the first act (particularly in her opening number “When our Gallant Norman Foes” and seemed to have a few pitching issues) but she improved throughout and added a lovely quality to the ensembles with her rich alto tones. Jeremy Finch, who had not entirely impressed me when I heard him sing Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore earlier this year, seemed on much better form as Leonard Meryll.

I suspect that several of the performance issues (to do with timing and pitching) were due to the open-air nature of the event and I wondered whether there was sufficient volume being fed-back onto the stage for the performers to hear clearly what the orchestra was playing. The amplification problem that plagued part of the first act, was a bit disappointing but was fairly quickly overcome. However, it did provide some unintended comedic moments when a very twenty-first century hand-held radio microphone made a temporary appearance in this sixteenth century setting. In the Act 1 Finale, Fairfax (pretending to be Leonard Meryll) was reduced to wandering around the stage like an itinerant reporter or game-show host, sharing the microphone with other soloists during his “patter” song.

I’m not sure what restrictions were placed upon the production and direction team under Peter Molloy, but I felt they may have missed an opportunity to make better use of the unique setting. The stage set, whilst probably perfectly good in a theatre, looked really contrived in the shadow of the real Tower. Sadly, the attempts to break out from the set and use the ground in front of the stage were not well planned. Jack Point’s death was completely missed by all bar those in the front rows – he simply disappeared from sight and the large television screens relaying the action to those sitting further back, failed to capture the moment. The camera operator was clearly under-rehearsed and at several points throughout the opera, managed to focus on entirely the wrong singer. But despite all of this, the evening was thoroughly enjoyable and enormously entertaining. The Musical Direction under Wyn Davies was faultless and Carl Rosa Opera served up a real treat yet again. And my final thought… when Mrs Edwards & I performed in Yeomen we were both in our mid-teens. How time flies!