Billy Budd - Opera North

21 October 2016 at Leeds Grand Theatre.

A great performance by an all-male cast. Striking scenery, stirring music, superb singing. It's a grim tale told as a flashback by a captain with a moral dilemma.  The three main characters, Captain Vere (Alan Oke), Claggart (Alastair Miles) and Billy Budd (Roderick Williams) were excellent, along with the supporting cast and the orchestra. 

I loved the piccolo playing during one of Billy's long arias. 

I thought the performance was magnificent.

Winter Cabaret by the Harborough Collective

Winter Cabaret

Wind, Sand and Stars
Saturday 5 November 2016 - 7.30pm
The Jubilee Hall, Congregational Church, High Street, Market Harborough, LE16 7JD

“I am entering the night. Sailing. Nothing left to me now but the stars….”
Antonine de Saint-Exupéry - poet, pilot, explorer of the air.

In a fascinating and beautiful weave of music and readings from Saint-Exupéry, the evening explores the pre-war world of the pioneer pilot, when to be a pilot was a thing of wonder: from the velvet minimalist chords of Satie to the brightly polished and exquisite whirring world of Ravel; from the exotic flavours of Debussy to the grit and pathos of Montmartre Chanson. Join The Harborough Collective for this entrancing cabaret-style concert complete with candlelit tables and a bar.
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David Le Page & Catherine Leech violins
Morgan Goff viola
Clare O'Connell cello
Elena Hull bass
Graham Padden narrator

Beautiful playing of a varied programme, and as a bonus the narrator's voice was clear and commanding.

The whole concert was a delight, and we especially liked the Satie, and the arrangements of Trenet's La Mer and Piaf's La Vie en Rose.

The Harborough Concerts