Praise for our Picnic Gala from Clapham Society
Among the near 100 concert goers who enjoyed our al fresco opera gala in the grounds of St Paul’s Church a few weeks ago was ‘Angelotti’, who reviewed the late afternoon’s performance for the Clapham Society. We are delighted to say that the critic clearly enjoyed listening to the concert as much as we enjoyed performing it.
“We were treated to a range of items for which the backdrop of St Paul’s lower churchyard provided an unexpectedly fine acoustic for the socially distanced, large, picnicking audience’, writes Angelotti. ‘The regulars will have recognised many of the faces who the driving force, Patricia Ninian, had pulled back together for this show, and they did not disappoint.’
The review is on the front age, no less, of the latest Society Newsletter and benefits from the inclusion of some colour photos of the event… the perfect way of marking the Newsletter’s first colour edition in its 55-year history.
If you’re not already a member and would like more information on the Clapham Society and its aims, talk to membership secretary Jennifer Everett on jeverett@waitrose.com.
Here’s the text in full:
En plein aria
Opera sung in a south London churchyard early on a September Saturday evening; electric piano, violin and cello to accompany - it didn’t sound too promising. How wrong one’s preconceptions can be. Singers and all musicians have had a dire time of it over the past six months and so to be blessed with an event when a number of very talented people are able to come out of hibernation and show an appreciative audience what they can do as a Gala Showcase for St Paul’s Opera was a release for them and, I sensed, for the audience as well.
We were treated to a range of items for which the backdrop of St Paul’s lower churchyard provided an unexpectedly fine acoustic for the socially distanced, large, picnicking audience. The regulars will have recognised many of the faces who the driving force, Patricia Ninian, had pulled back together for this show, and they did not disappoint. There were newcomers, too, who it is hoped will be seen again in the company’s long-awaited production of Albert Herring, not least soprano Jenny Hunt. It is invidious to pull a few names out of a cast so gifted, but I am going to anyway. Jenny Hunt, who sang from Cavalleria Rusticana, was an eye opener, and Tanya and Louis Hurst were stunning duettists, husband and wife in real life but able to give full force to the tensions between Floria Tosca and the ghastly Scarpia. Pianist Panaretos Kyriatzidis directed and his two other musicians, James Widden and Alison Holford, were masterful. The programme was brilliantly introduced by The Revd Canon Jonathan Boardman, vicar of St Paul’s, who clearly has an alternative vocation. I arrived sceptical and went home converted. Thank you, SPO. Angelotti
Photography (by Matthew Carter) - top left, clockwise: Patricia Ninian and Danni O’Neill, singing the ‘Flower Duet’ from Lakmé, Tanya and Louis Hurst, The Revd Canon Jonathan Boardman; Jenny Hunt, Alison Hunt and The Revd Canon Jonathan Boardman.