Summer Soup Songs: Lunchtime series at NCH & St Columba's

St Columba's Ennis

I heard two terrific young singers  in two lunchtime  recitals  a couple of weeks ago. The first was  in the grand auditorium of the prestigious National Concert Hall with the full forces of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the second, in the hidden gem of the  neo Gothic St Columba's Church in Ennis County Clare.

My review of baritone Sean Boylan with pianist Tham Horng Kent was published earlier this week in the Irish Examiner, link here . It is good to see this series establishing itself on the scene hosted by Helen Houlihan. What impressed her about today's singer, I asked the soprano. 'The voice of course but most of all the ability to get right into the heart of the text' she said. Virginia Kerr was among the gathering to hear her student perform. Sopranos Ruth Kelly and Edel O Brien who also perform as part of the series were in a attendance to support  their fellow artists.

Rachel Kelly

Another rising star of the opera stage drew a full house to National Concert Hall on Tuesday for the final concert in the RTE National Symphony Orchestra's lunchtime series.  In a programme titled Love Actually, mezzo soprano Rachel Kelly  demonstrated the sparkling form and graceful stage presence that has propelled her onto the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist programme at the Royal Opera House in a programme of arias by Mozart, Rossini, Bizet and Guonod. Kelly  sported a 'grand bit of glam' in sequinned gown and sparkly jewellery . The ladies of the RTE NSO wore a casual dress down Friday look in black pants and assorted tops and cardis. Perfect for cycling home in after the concert. Come on ladies! Break out those summer frocks. The occasion demands it. 

The combined forces of the Kelly and Hunt clan gathered in the foyer to support their girl. NCH chief Simon Taylor was in the John Field Room to greet concert goers.  The combination of great value price €10 and a daylight hours performance with a tidy running time  attracted a large proportion of senior citizens and day trippers. 'I come every week' said Mary from Dundrum. 'Tuesday is always music day. I wouldn't miss it'

You can hear Rachel singing in a master class with the soprano Joyce di Donato here  


Kelly has a busy Autumn schedule ahead. as a cast member of major new productions at the ROH  in the Autumn season. She appears in the ROH collaboration with The Globe, L'Ormindo and in Verdi's early work, Il Duo Foscari. The series continues with the RTE Concert Orchestra picking up the baton.  Their guest soloist on Aug 12^th  is soprano Ana Devin followed by  Eamonn  Mulhall on 26th. John Wilson, new principal conductor of the RTE CO conducts an instrumental programme on August 19th 

Bus 145 directly in front of Luas stop brings you all the way from Heuston Station to  Leeson Street , a stone's throw from the NCH

Related posts  Musical Postcards France at NCH

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2013/06/classical-thursday-recital-series.html

Review of recital with Rachel Kelly and Una Hunt at Wexford Opera Festival 

The Trimmings: Wexford Festival Opera 2012

William Vincent Wallace  bicentenary recital

La Pluie d’Or

Scottische

Sweet Spirit Hear My Prayer Lurline

Fantasia on Moores Melodies The Harp That Once Through Tara’a Halls

The Seasons 4 Canzonettas

Souvenir from Maritana

Invitation Polka

Say My Heart Can This Be Love 

Scenes that are Brightest

Encore I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls Balfe 

Una Hunt piano

Rachel Kelly mezzo soprano

Una Hunt 

The South East  was bathed in sunshine as I travelled to Wexford  to sample some of the fringe events at the annual international Wexford Opera Festival.  At the Jerome Hynes Theatre at Wexford Opera House there was a full house for  a  sparkling morning recital celebrating the bicentennial of  the Waterford born, William Vincent Wallace.   Pianist and broadcaster Una Hunt is well known for her championship  of  less well known 19th century  Irish piano composers and her extensive Moore recital series  .  Wallace has a particular resonance with my youthful musical memories and no variety show in Waterford was complete without a rendition of Scenes that are Brightest or In  Happy Moments. The  piano pieces may be salon trifles but are very  virtuoso in character and present considerable technical challenges which Ms Hunt tossed off seemingly effortlessly following interesting informative introductions. The real surprise of the morning was mezzo soprano ,  Rachel Kelly’s impressive performance of the Wallace songs . Announced as a  stand in for Marie Flavin,  a sylph like Ms Kelly appeared on stage dressed  in long red dress and costume jewellery .  From her

Rachel Kelly mezzo soprano 

opening phrase she had the audience enthralled as she stepped into the character of a demure 19^th century salon debutante,  whether singing wistfully of secret unrequited passion or animatedly about the joy of Spring. One to watch out for and  I look forward to hearing her again. Looking at the festival programme, it is remarkable that Irish singers are thin on the ground in the cast listings.  The lunchtime recital being  full,  I went  instead to the Spiegel Tent and there was an echo of the morning  when Declan Gorman reprised Rachel Kelly’s encore of Balfes’s, I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls  in a scene from his  one man Joyce show Dubliner’s Dilemma  

Link to RTE Lyric feature archive of The Road to Maritana here

@wexfordopera @rtelyricfm More info & audio link to the first episode of William V Wallace The Road to Maritana at rte.ie/lyricfm/featur…
— The Lyric Feature (@LyricFeature) October 9, 2012

Leaving behind the delights of Blaas and Banter of Waterford Quayside,  the lobby in White’s Hotel didn’t have quite the buzz  I expected for a Saturday of a bank holiday weekend.  Perhaps the  lower footfall was due to  the relocation of the afternoon short works series to a school hall about ten minute walk away.  While  the singing was  fine and aspects of the production were very funny and clever, I failed to be transported to the realm of the Queen of the Night  by Roberto Recchia’s  Festival production of Mozart’s  Magic Flute. It was difficult to conjure up the illusion that you were in an anteroom to Sarastro's Temple sitting on school chairs at the back of the long rectangular  space Neither was the show 'short’  by the usual festival standards running at over 1hour 45 minutes and there was a steady drift of patrons from the ‘auditorium’ during the second hour.  To quote Emporer Franz Joseph there were  just ‘too many notes on a sunny afternoon by the coast.

 Notes    I stumbled on the Spiegel Tent on my second trip and thought it was a great addition to the Wexford fringe experience. I was surprised not to see the Spiegel Tent events listed in the Fringe Festival publicity material or  on the Wexford Fringe Festival website and was sorry to miss an event  that I would have enjoyed.  Surprising too that there is no link on the the main festival site to the fringe and vice versa.  The information on lunchtime recitals was sketchy.  Why not have a  big daily notice board in prominent location with all the days events listed and ticket availability  as in the Kilkenomics Festival  .  

Related articles Toscanissimo WFO 2011  http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/10/wexford-festival-2011.html

Tamino

Patrick Hyland

Pamina

Anna Jeruc-Kopec

Papageno

Jamie Rock

Sarastro

Thomas Faulkner

Queen of the Night

Nazan Fikret

First Lady

Maria Miro

Second Lady

Eleanor Lyons

Third Lady

Catia Moreso

Papagena

Chloe Morgan

Monostatos

Carlos Noguiera

First Armoured Man

David Sanchez Serra

Second Armoured Man

Cozmin Sime

First Spirit

Elenor Bowers-Jolley

Second Spirit

Natalie Sinnott

Third Spirit

Anna Jeffers