We were delighted to be back in Sudbury Arts Centre, ifor this concert. Its reasonably warm with comfortable seating which is not always the case for our concert venues it has to be said. This was an opera themed concert with the wonderful soprano soloist Catherine May singing a selection of our favourite opera arias from Verdi's Sicilian Vespers, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Delibes Lakme and the ever popular Carmen by Bizet. And to sharpen us all for the evening we have Verdi's La Forza Destino overture to start with - that certainly got our instruments warmed up.
Verdi's Overture to La Forza Destino: Its Italian, its Verdi, its opera. What more is there to know? Great fun, pretty dramatic, maybe not entirely subtle. Hope you enjoyed the brass section having a ball.
Opera arias: During the evening Catherine sang Verdi's Merce diletto amiche from I Vespri Siciliani, Puccini's Un bel di vedremo from Madama Butterfly, Delibes' The Bell Song Ou va jeune Hindoue from Lakme and from Bizet's Carmen she will be singing the Habanera and Micaela's Song. Despite a really heavy cold it was an awesome performance!
Mascagni's Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana: Described by one music review site as three minutes of unctuous bliss. And who would argue with that. Certainly not Scorcese who placed the Intermezzo in the opening and closing moments of his film Raging Bull where the serenity of the music is a wonderful contrast to the life of the boxer Jake La Motta.
Bizet's Carmen Suites: In his short lifetime Bizet's Carmen opera was not at all successful (probably considered a little too raunchy for the period) but gadually over time it has become one of the most performed operas of all time. The Suites are the orchestral version of the best bits of the opera but not necessarily in the right order. We mixed some of the suite pieces with the original opera versions so that our soloist could sing Habanera and Micaela's song. This is great music with some wonderfully seductive and irresistable Spanish rhythms by its French composer.
Ticket info: Tickets cost just £18 for adults and £2 for children (16 and under) and are available now from the Sudbury Tourist Office (in the Town Hall) and Peddars (lovely gentlemen's outfitters just by St Peter's). Online tickets were available from TicketSource. As usual a limited number of tickets will be available on the door.
More info?: Do please email me on info@sudburysymphonyorchestra.com if you have any questions on the concert.