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Musical storytelling
Last night, before the performance Chris Rolls (director) reminded us that it is easy at a second performance to think, right I’ve done that now, and to slacken off a bit. Don’t let it get comfortable, he said. Good advice. We didn’t. However the advantage of having done a full performance with audience was that…
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Macbeth first night shakes the walls
I don’t know how I didn’t notice in rehearsal, but when we are waiting in the dressing room, we can not only hear the overture, we can feel it, the drums and brass rumble through the floor and the walls shake slightly. I can only assume that they’d been holding back a bit until now!…
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Reading at Brixton BookJam: Opera first night nerves
First night nerves not about the Book Jam, but about the Opera which starts tonight (there are a very few tickets left – you’ll be sorry you missed it!) I was a bit uneasy about yet another night out in a week of performances, but thought, what the hell, I’ll ask to go on early.…
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Spooky rehearsals
Chris Rolls (director) and Oliver Townsend (designer) have really gone for the supernatural and psychological in our production of Verdi’s Macbeth – lots of ghosts, spooks and blood. An Act III cameo role for 5 children as the Masters of the Earth warning Macbeth against MacDuff and setting im up with the Birnham Wood nonsense.…
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The Scottish Opera
Things are hotting up for the cast of Macbeth (Verdi), the latest production from Blackheath Halls Opera. We’ve met and heard all the principals, and we’re firmly off the book and managing to move and sing at the same time, though getting up from kneeling (to various kings – we get through a few) and…
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Keats Festival 2013 opens
Today is the first full day of the Keats Festival, which is held at Keats House, Keats Grove, Hampstead. I spent yesterday evening at the launch event, listening to the poetry of Jay Bernard (Demon’s in Hell go on strike, in the most visceral meaty bit of poetry I’ve heard in a long time, very…
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Chorus Festival – South Bank
Here are is a video clip and a photo of Vocal Chords doing their thing at the festival,- we were by the Mandela statue on Sunday at 1. We also sang in the opening event. A and I went to two workshops – Sea Shanties on Saturday , and on…
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Chorus
This weekend I’m singing. OK I know, I sing all the time, but this is in public, and at the South Bank Centre. The magnificent Chorus festival, a fixture for several years now over the May Bank Holiday, is on from Saturday to Monday, with warm-ups, rehearsals, workshops and performances. YOU can join in! Download…
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Listening between the notes
Monday Night, Croydon Folk Club, Coope Boyes & Simpson gig. I know I spend a lot of time writing about music, but there is method in it. In the right circumstances, and these were they, being in the front row, singing along with professional musicians who encourage joining in, not only do the spirits lift,…
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Water Aid Day singing
Vocal Chords are singing in St Pancras Station, London, opposite the National Ticket Office at 6pm this Friday, 22nd March. We are raising money for Water Aid by singing our favourite Sing For Water songs. If you are on your way home from work, get a later train and stay and enjoy, and give generously!…
Cherry Potts, Writer 