Tag Archives: Verdi

Verdi or Dixit?

I had a choice between two concerts on the same night: either singing Handel’s and Scarlatti’s settings of Dixit Dominus with a larger choir than they were written for in Bristol, or singing Verdi’s Requiem with a smaller orchestra than … Continue reading

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round-up of 2024

2024 will not rank as a particularly vintage year for me I think – I didn’t go to any operas and there were no major works I sang for the first time (maybe this is because the ones that I … Continue reading

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Verdi at the Beacon

Now that the Bristol Beacon is available to us, Bristol Choral Society can put on the bigger works that have been off the menu since 2018. First up was Verdi’s Requiem – a work that is thoroughly ingrained in me … Continue reading

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my top 10 big choral works

January is always a quiet month for performance (although I have one new venture I’ll write about fairly soon) so time to write some more general posts I’ve been saving up for a while. Singing Mahler 2 near the end … Continue reading

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Opera at the V & A

I caught the V & A’s exhibition Opera: Power, Passion and Politics 10 days or so before it closed (which it has done now – sorry), and found it thought-provoking though not in the ‘unmissable’ category. The exhibitions centres on … Continue reading

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buying CDs at the farmers’ market

Bath Farmers’ Market takes place on Saturday mornings. The market stalls stand next to other stalls which are there all week, including one that sells second-hand DVDs and CDs. Among the latter there is a small selection of classical ones, … Continue reading

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the Scottish opera

I went to Bath Opera again to see Macbeth, encouraged by a friend in the chorus. As last year, I left it to the last minute but they hadn’t sold out, so I was sold a seat in a block … Continue reading

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a memorial concert

We had a particular involvement in Bristol Choral Society’s Verdi Requiem in Colston Hall with the British Sinfonietta, as we contributed to the cost in memory of my late father-in-law. I was singing, and in fact this was the first … Continue reading

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Violetta’s back-story

One of the most poignant moments in the current (actually 20-year-old) Royal Opera House production of La Traviata comes even before the curtain rises; during the overture, images of 19th-century poverty-stricken girls are projected on it, to suggest Violetta’s origins … Continue reading

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The Great Chorus

The children’s school is putting on one of its occasional concerts in which they invite parents and others associated with the school to boost the school choirs in a concert. I sang in the last of these; unfortunately I will … Continue reading

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