Paco Peña and company at Cubitt Sesions, Kings Cross Saturday July 27 2019
The last eight days have been mainly social catching up with friends after such busy weeks all over the place! But it was a huge pleasure to go to the 2019 Cubitt sessions at the excellent new space that they are using at King's Cross - the Coal Drops Yard. Paco Peña is of course a living legend - to have him and his troupe for two hours in King's Cross on a summer evening, and all for free, is a miracle!
© Ali Wright
Natalya Romaniw and David Butt Philip in Iolanta
On Thursday evening I was able to get to one of the other miracles of summer in London, Holland Park Opera in absolutely top form with their delightful double bill of Wolf-Ferrari's Segreto di Susanna and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. The Wolf-Ferrari little one act farce is of course a bit of a trifle - but an ideal curtain raiser for pretty well anything. And so it was on Thursday with Clare Presland and Richard Burkhard the troubled couple.
Iolanta is of course another more substantial piece of work and given its 85 minute length always somehow needs a pairing. It was premiered in 1892 at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg together with the premiere of The Nutcracker! Well Holland Park does not have a ballet company so that idea would not have worked! It is interesting to note that Iolanta apparently achieved the greater public acclaim on that night - whereas The Nutcracker has subsequently become the most performed ballet of all and Iolanta is something of a rarity!!
Hats off to James Clutton and his team for having put together a remarkable cast. Natalya Romaniw and David Butt Philip were truly thrilling throughout, and hitting the "money notes" with ruthless aplomb to electrifying effect. Wow factors all round! And the musical leadership of Sian Edwards in the pit brought real quality to the whole ensemble with the excellent Opera Holland Park Chorus and the City of London Sinfonia turning in top notch performances. It was a hugely enjoyable evening and wildly applauded by the full house. It is on our door step in London at one end of bucolic Holland Park - no need to make the expedition to Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire or the Chilterns to get an unusual operatic fix!
I was back at Coal Drops Yard again yesterday evening for a nice programme from four of the English National Opera's Harewood Artists. They sang most of their items in the original language in defiance of the ENO policy! But all the more welcome for that. Nadine Benjamin, Katie Coventry, Elgan Llŷr Thomas and Matthew Durkan were the wholly admirable quartet genially accompanied by Chris Hopkins on a Clavinova. Which made me question whether it really is impossible to do events like this with a piano and natural unamplified sound.......
Anyway again there was a full house and enthusiastic applause and a good time was had by all - including me!
I am at Glyndebourne tomorrow for the dress rehearsal of Rinaldo, and again on Tuesday for a performance of Die Zauberflöte. On Wednesday I am on the Eurostar to Avignon for a four day visit to Errol and Susie Girdlestone in Lumières - about which much more anon!
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