-
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!…
-
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…
-
Towersey countdown #SpreadtheWordThree
So, here’s the plan: Myself and two other hand chosen operatives will infiltrate the festival that has been held in Towersey, a small Oxfordshire village for years and years, and turn what has until now been a folk music event into a celebration of the spoken word. Watches have been synchronised, and train timetables perused. …
-
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,…
-
Festive Spirits
Christmas is all about singing for me, either performing, or in the audience. This year was no exception, starting with a superb workshop of traditional folk carols with Lester Simpson on the 1st December. We learnt Adam Lay ybounden (15th Century), Dunstan Lullaby (very simple, very effective) and a couple of variants of While Shepherds…
-
getting a cover for a book
This is a strange way of going about things, but I’ve just chosen a cover for a book that I haven’t finished writing yet. We’ve been running a competition over at Arachne Press for the covers of the next two books, and I got down to three gorgeous, wonderful designs for the reprint of Mosaic…
-
Gearing up for Yule
I don’t care how many shopping days, what matters now is, how many singing days are there til the Solstice? And how many reading days? My evenings are split roughly equally between singing and promoting the books between now and Christmas. Rehearsals every Monday for Vivaldi Gloria at Blackheath Halls Christmas Concert Tuesdays at the…
-
Blackheath Mini Prom – better late than never
As someone should probably have told me when I was a nipper, don’t promise what you can’t deliver. So here, very late, is my review of the Mini Prom at Blackheath Halls way back on the 5th October. In my defence I’ve been busy promoting Arachne Press, and I carried the programme around with me…
-
Mini Last Night of the Proms at Blackheath Halls
I regard Blackheath Halls as an extension of my home, despite being a good twenty-minute car journey away. For about half the year I spend at least one evening a week there, singing; we had the party for our civil partnership there, and I am happy to turn up to be in the audience on…
-
Blackheath Cendrillon: At Home with the Haltieres
OMG! Have I got a Scoopydoop of a Scoop! Madame de la Haltiere is going to be sued! Sorry forgot to say, L.C. Spinetti here. Have a listen to this sound file, where Harriet Lime, director of Season 5 of At Home with the Haltieres reveals what it is really like behind the scenes at…
Cherry Potts, Writer 