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Singing and ringing and feeling like christmas
So: Saturday was a singing day, 3 hours or so, rehearsing, performing, singing with the audience, interspersed with beer at the lovely Ivy House. We like to have a theme or a project for Vocal Chords, in the summer it was love songs for the planet, this autumn it has been folk carols, learnt from…
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Oh the weeping and the wailing
The trouble with having a brilliant time at Blackheath Halls prancing about singing is that inevitably it comes to an end. The party helps make the break, and it was good to hear from orchestra members how much they enjoyed the process too, and either wanted to know what on earth we did to Macbeth…
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More Macbeth Reviews and more unsung heroes
The Independent have reviewed Macbeth as have Classical Source they both really liked it, and the chorus get special mention. I would just like to mention another set of unsung heroes – the stage managers. Managing sixty amateur chorus members thirty children and all the principles, to say nothing of guns, knives, glasses, trays, beer…
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Macbeth does Murder Sleep
Being part of an opera plays havoc with your sleep (and eating) patterns. I’m a bit of a homebody normally (although running a publishing venture has changed that a bit – schlepping about with a suitcase full of books to readings of an evening has meant my normal bedtime is now nearer midnight than it…
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The performing bug
It’s the last performance of Macbeth on Sunday and from previous experience I know we will have withdrawal symptoms. I think it was after Elixir of Love that we bumped into fellow chorus members at the Maritime Museum and practical had a keening session on the subject of how bereft we felt. Years ago I…
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Unsung heroes
We’ve got a very good review for Macbeth in Opera Today, but I do have to take issue with one thing: While I’m sure the opera wouldn’t happen without Keith Murray’s support, the true heart, soul and backbone of the community opera projects reside in the main in one person: key go-to person and community…
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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.…
Cherry Potts, Writer 