Classical Opera Company - Associate Artists Recital
- Posted on October 10, 2006 3:46 PM
- 0 comments
Sofia has been singing her entire life and is a huge fan of classical song. I saw this concert on the Wigmore Hall diary last month and bought tickets because it seemed the one I was least likely to fall asleep during. I was right...again!
We picked up Apostrophe sandwiches and walked over to the Hall, eating them on the street out front, cheap date. I had never been to Wigmore Hall before and I was most impressed by how accessible and undaunting it feels for the non-regular concert goer. As we entered the hall I was also struck by the make up of the audience - the majority were either over 50 (expected) or under 25 (not). There were BH's (blue hairs) seated next to hipters in linen, seated next to chicks in pink Chucks; mostly I would say a gay-er crowd is unlikely to be found this side of Katie's Scissor Sisters show. For under 30 straight males, this crowd also provides a great opportunity for bird watching. Oh, the show...
The Classical Opera Company, led by its conductor and Artistic Director Ian Page, is devoted to exploring the works of Mozart and his contemporaries. Last night's performance was a combination of Mozart and as Page put it "more obscure works performed to demonstrate that their obscurity is without good reason" and included the likes of Gluck, JS Bach and Thomas Arne. The playlist can be found on the Wigmore Hall October diary.
Andrew Staples - Tenor
Rebecca Bottone - Soprano
Anna Lesse - Soprano
MarteneGrimson - Soprano
Ian Page - Piano
The show opened with each performer in solo singing from a variety of source material. It was clear form the outset that the term "Associate" must mean something different because all of them are fantastic singers - I preferred Mr Staples' smooth as whiskey tenor and Ms Lesse for her dramatic performance. After the intermission, the concert switched gears to little known songs that Mozart had composed for friends and private parties including "Das Veilchen," a short ditty about a girl stepping on a violet and "Zauberer" about a young woman alone in the woods with a man who must have been a sorcerer given how he made her behave!
The performance concluded with Ms Lesse and Mr Staples performing the duet fra gli apmplessi from Cosi fan tutte which is pure seduction and Ms Grimson and Bottonne singing vanne a regnar ben mio from Il Pastore. This remarkable as it was written and originally sung by Girolamo Crescentini the famous castrato who was able to reach vocal ranges not attanined by either mature sopranos or male voices.
As we were leaving the show I could see elderly ladies mixing with groups of young men in form fitting t-shirts discussing the perfomance together. I knew what they were saying because I'd been awake the entire time.
by Joe Cohen
Tags
Associate Artists Recital, classical, Classical Opera Company, concert, london, music, opera, review, seatwave, The Classical Opera Company, wigmore hall
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