We were quite busy during the Autumn of 2019 and our 2020 season has already started with a nearly sold out ‘Scottish Night At The Opera’ for our Burn’s Night celebration at The White Lion Inn, Bourton in Dorset. Another great collaboration with our close friends and colleagues in Musica da Camera. A delicious taster menu was as follows:
Mulled Whiskey Mac & Canapés
Mulligatawny Soup
*
Scottish Smoked Salmon, Scotch Pancakes, Soured Cream and Capers
Supreme of Chicken
*
Haggis, Neeps & Tatties Gratin
Thyme & Red Wine Jus
*
Cranachan & Shortbread
Select Scottish Cheese, Grapes & House Chutney with Oat Cakes
We complimented this with selections of Opera – opening with The Chorus of Wedding Guests from Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) with tenor solo ably covered by our Soprano, Susan Coates, then followed another aria from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia delivered with grace by Mezzo-Soprano, Arabella Heaton. Mary Stuart’s Prayer, again by Donizetti, was delivered with emotion and poise by Susan Coates and Macbeth’s Aria (Verdi) was sung with great style by our deputy Baritone for the evening, Andrew Armstrong, who jumped in at a moment’s notice.
Modern arrangements of Scottish folk songs – Skye Boat Song, Auld Lang Syne, (arr. L’Estrange) The Bonny Earl O’ Moray, (arr. Britten) The Road To The Isles (arr. Jackson) in two and three part harmony, also featured on the programme. The words of Robert Burns featured heavily in our second section performed in traditional Scots, ‘O Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast’ (Mendelssohn) English ‘My Love is Like A Red, Red Rose’ (arr. Moffat) and also German for three settings by Schumann ‘Jemand’ (For the sake ‘o Somebody), Höchlanders Abschied (My Heart’s In The Highlands) and Höchlandisches Wiegenlied (Hee Balou). A modern arrangement of ‘Ca’ The Yowes’ was performed by Susan Coates with special permission given by it’s composer, Nick Goodall.
Our Finale took us to the magical village of Brigadoon with the 1955 musical by Lerner and Loewe during which we were glad to welcome our regular Baritone, Will Tyson Smith, who had been suffering with a bad cold. The audience didn’t get away without singing along to the chorus of Loch Lomond and bookings were already being taken for the next Opera Dinner event at The White Lion Inn on the 1st of April for an April Fool inspired evening with music from comic opera, operetta and shows! We do love a theme! Special mention must be made to our accompanist Caroline D’Cruz for her amazing skills at the keyboard. The hardest job of the evening.
Opera Dinners are proving very popular and we are a tightly knit team of performers who have been working together, along-side restaurant owners, chefs and maître d’s for a long time. If you would like us to perform at your restaurant, pub or event please get in touch here.
Alternatively, come and see us in action on April the 1st and / or July the 7th, 8th and 9th for our Glyndebourne style summer event. (The White Lion Inn, Bourton, Dorset)
Opera Sulis 