As an opera lover I won’t pretend there isn’t something slightly odd about hearing songs that are meant to be part of a dramatic narrative acted out on stage being sung as a concert in formal evening wear. I want to get this personal observation out of the way before I go on to talk about this evenings performance as it relates to opera recitals in general and not this evenings concert particularly. There is of course an argument that the music is in and of itself inspiring and uplifting and that in a recital you get all the best bits without having to sit through a full opera. It is of course a wonderful treat to hear these show stoppers sung back to back like an operatic greatest hits and I know recitals are a vital part of the earning stream of many classically trained singers. Recitals also creates an opportunity for a wider audience to experience opera sung live which is certainly good so having said that I would earnestly encourage anyone who enjoys recitals to please go to full staged performances and hear these wonderful tunes sung in context alongside their brother and sister arias and choruses.
Sopranos Aoife Gibney & Amy Ní Fhearraigh.
We were back in the historic St. Peter’s Church of Ireland in Drogheda with its wonderful atmosphere and acoustics for this concert. In his introductory remarks the Reverend Iain Jamieson reminded the audience that this is primarily a place of worship but it has to be said that it is also a wonderful performance space. Our singers this evening were Amy Ní Fhearraigh, Aoife Gibney, Owen Gilhooly and Gavan Ring with accompaniment on piano by Aoife O’Sullivan. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of seeing Amy Ní Fhearraigh perform as Suzanna in a fully staged production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama (Aoife Gibney also performed Contessa Almaviva but not on the night I attended). For my review click here
Tenor Owen Gilhooly & baritone Gavan Ring.
The recital itself was in a word wonderful and for me at least the programme very appropriately opened with the aria that first caught my ear and helped me realise there was this thing out there called opera. ‘Largo al factotum’ from Rossini’s masterpiece The Barber of Seville. Sung rather energetically by Gavan Ring, this classic bel-canto tongue twister set the tone for the quality of the evening to follow.
The first half of the concert featured some of the best known arias and duets in the operatic canon. After Rossini we moved to tunes by Puccini, Donizetti, Mozart and Bizet from their great operas. Aoife Gibney and Amy Ní Fhearraigh performed two fabulous duets, ‘Sull’aria’ from The Marriage of Figaro and an incredibly elegant and accomplished rendition of the ‘Flower Duet’ from Léo Delibes’ Lakmé. A slightly surprising inclusion in the programme was ‘Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen’ the tragically sad aria from Erich Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City) written when he was only 23 and many years before he moved to America in 1938 to write some of his most famous pieces for Hollywood movies. The first half of the programme closed with Owen Gilhooly and Gavan Ring treating us to the famous duet ‘Au fond du temple saint’ from George Bizets’ The Pearl Fishers. What a run into the intermission…
Gavan Ring sings ‘Largo al factotum’ from The Barber of Seville
During the intermission we all retired to the parish hall for a chat and a complimentary coffee or glass of wine, well done and thank you to the organisers! It was obvious from talking to some of the concert goers that they were very impressed with the concert and keen to retake their seats for part two.
To open the second half we returned to the Italian canon with more treasures from Puccini, Donizetti and Verdi and Owen Gilhooly singing a beautiful yet powerful version of ‘Pourquoi me réveiller’ from Jules Massenet’s Werther. This half also had its little surprises as well in the form of ‘O Carlo ascolta’ from Verdi’s Don Carlos sung with resonance and presence by Gavan Ring. Gavan is certainly a Baritone to watch. We also had an English language contribution in the form of ‘Tiny’s Song’ from Benjamin Britten’s early operetta Paul Bunyan sung by Aoife Gibney and for a finale we were treated to a rousing all hands on deck rendition of the ‘Brindisi’ from Verdi’s La Traviata with all the singers dancing ’round the stage.
One observation I would make is that on an evening that was essential a greatest hits of opera, 14 of the songs were in Italian, 4 in French and 1 each in German and English. This rather clearly illustrates the grip Italy has on the public perception of opera or at least the type of opera that triumphs at wonderfully memorable tunes at any rate.
I thoroughly enjoyed the concert with its selection of operatic classics peppered with a few off kilter contributions that added a bit of variety to the programme and the standing ovation for the performers at the end of the evening was very well deserved.
operakey 