Mr Benn at WNO
A workshop presentation of Mr Benn by Stephen McNeff, with libretto by Andy Morton, for WNO’s MAX department, directed by Rhian Hutchings. Seen here are Laura Pooley as the Princess, Jonathan Gunthorpe as the King and me as the Dragon.
Royal Opera House lunchtime recital – Monday 24 October 1pm
Following the great success of Beginnings, Hugh's songs for me with string orchestra that were premiered at the 2010 Presteigne Festival, he has dusted off a second set, this time converting the original orchestral score into a piano accompaniment. The Laurie Lee Songs were begun at a similar time to Beginnings, in the late 1950s, and set Lee's five poems Boy in Ice, The Edge of Day, The Easter Green, Town Owl and April Rise. Like Beginnings the songs are full of rich lyricism, lush textures and dramatic colour.
Click here to go to the ROH bookings website - the concert is free to the public but tickets are limited and booking opens nine days before the performance, with some tickets held back until the morning of the concert itself.
Click here to listen to excerpts from Beginnings
Mr Benn – the opera
Finally someone has decided to immortalise the fabulous Mr Benn in operatic form. The popular childrens’ cartoon from the 1970s usually provokes sighs of nostalgia from the over 35s and bafflement from anyone younger, despite having been repeated almost constantly ever since. Andy Morton has written the libretto, set by Stephen McNeff, and I will be in Cardiff later this month to workshop the first sections at WNO. The inspiration for these first scenes is Mr Benn – the Red Knight (click here to watch the original) I play the Dragon and my fellow cast members are: Darren Abrahams (the Shopkeeper); Laura Pooley (the Princess); Paul Carey Jones (the Matchmaker); Thorbjørn Gulbransøy (Mr Benn) and Jonathan Gunthorpe (the King). Eugene Monteith conducts and Rhian Hutchings directs.
A Night to Remember
Pictured left: Me, with Deborah Bull, Darren Abrahams and Lindy Tennent-Brown, following our concert in Eye, Suffolk on October 1st. This was a first airing of a new programme built around the idea of a throwing a party, in which we follow a group of characters through the evening, from the planning and preparation, to clearing up the mess afterwards. It features a genre-busting range of musical styles from Rossini to Sondheim, via Roy Orbison, Mozart and Noel Coward, and the rapturous reception we received from our audience confirmed our belief that this a great way to construct a concert, drawing on the full range of our skills and experience in opera, recital and music theatre to make connections between songs from very different worlds. We also like to tailor repertoire to the particular event, devise seamless musical linkages, and sharpen up lyrics to make the whole programme flow. Look out for further performances of this fantastic programme.
Most popular tune of the evening: Crying (Roy Orbison)
Best prop of the evening: Red Velvet Cupcake (Hummingbird Bakery)