It was an excellent idea as part of Skipton’s Yorkshire Day celebrations to hold a Night at the Opera in the town hall – not least because the Skipton Building Society Camerata and the recently-formed Skipton Choral Society provided a wide range of mostly popular excerpts from the operatic repertoire.
When you add to that the participation of four top quality soloists – soprano Claire Ormshaw, mezzo Hannah Mason, tenor Nick Hardy and bass John Cunningham – you have the basis of a memorable evening. And so it proved.
The orchestra, who had not played in the town hall before, produced a rich and vibrant sound – as did the chorus, although they had to contend with a very backward placement.
Excerpts from Carmen opened the proceedings and you would never have guessed Hannah Mason’s sultry Carmen lives in Steeton and John Cunningham’s strutting Escamillo was born in Wigan.
Other favourites followed, and the evening was rounded off with two show stoppers. Nick Hardy brought the house down with his spectacular power and accuracy in Puccini’s Nessun Dorma from Turandot and finally all four soloists combined for the drinking song in Act 1 of Verdi’s La Traviata.
However, the real triumph of the evening was the decision to perform a substantial excerpt from Puccini’s La Boheme, 15 minutes of continuous music which ends Act 1. It also happens to be perhaps the supreme example in music of young lovers’ awakening attraction. It helped that Claire Ormshaw, as well as producing a stream of golden tone, looked convincing as the penniless young seamstress Mimi.
The performance was magical and only slightly marred by the young lovers’ exit (still singing their rapturous phrases) under a sign saying “Bar”’. But on a hot night it seemed the sensible thing to do even if far removed from the freezing garret of the original.
The Yorkshire Day celebrations in Skipton seem to have gone particularly well this year, and this operatic venture was a great success with a full and enthusiastic audience in the town hall. So congratulations to Skipton Town Council for its bold venture in promoting this operatic evening and here is hoping for comparable events in future years.
Chris Balaam
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