The last week has been one of some considerable nostalgia - first on Sunday a wonderful evening at Glyndebourne where I spent the first twenty seven years of my working life, and then three nostalgic days in Dublin where I studied law at Trinity College - not altogether successfully, but with great enjoyment of student life and the discovery of what I really wanted to do, not law but something in the musical world. I spend more time singing, playing in various orchestras, and taking part in a production of The Beggar's Opera at Dublin's famous Gate Theatre. The theatre was made available to us by the generosity of Edward, Lord Longford who presided over this theatre for thirty years until his death in 1961.
© Richard Hubert Smith
But Glyndebourne first - Berlioz is a great passion and hero for so many British music lovers and I am delighted that Glyndebourne has followed up their production of Béatrice et Bénédict with a superb version of La Damnation de Faust. This was a treat at every level - Glyndebourne's superlative chorus and the London Philharmonic in top form and elegant and beautifully sung performances from Julie Boulianne, Allan Clayton, and Christopher Purves - all seen above. And all this within the effective framework devised by that magician Richard Jones. Altogether deeply satisfying.
Of course the main purpose of my trip to Dublin was for the first ever Neue Stimmen auditions in the fair city. But I could hardly fail to revisit Trinity where I had spent two happy years, following the tradition of so many of my family members, including my father who by an extraordinary coincidence had rooms on the same staircase as me, in Number 2, forty years before. Walking through the front gate (above) was as magical as ever!
The Dublin auditions produced one of those rare Eureka moments, a remarkable young singer which made the journey all the more worthwhile. We were hosted with the usual fabled Irish Fáilte (welcome) by Mairead Hurley and the DIT Conservatory. And there was the opportunity also to spend some time with Dearbhla Collins of the Royal Irish Academy and London's National Opera Studio, my old friend from RTE Jane Carty, and the amazing Ronnie Dunne, as active a 92 year old as anyone could hope to be. Four amazing women who encapsulate everything that is magical in Irish musical life.
I have busy days ahead. This evening The National Opera Studio have a show at the RADA studios, I am at Garsington tomorrow for Fantasio rehearsals, and on Monday off to Munich for Neue Stimmen.
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