Daily Archives: 14 December, 2018

New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala – Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

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Brighton Dome, Mon 31 December, 2.45pm

Richard Balcombe makes a welcome return to Brighton as guest conductor for the Brighton Phil’s annual Viennese Gala, joined by the Russian-born soprano Ilona Domnich whose lyric coloratura will add sparkle to our afternoon with a selection of delightful songs and arias from well-known operettas and musicals from the 19th century and beyond. This is always one of our most popular concerts of the season and, now in its 29th year, is firmly established as part of the city’s festivities. We nearly sold out last year so if you would like to join us to see out the old year and welcome in the new, book your tickets now to avoid disappointment!

Originally destined to be a pianist, Ilona was plucked from a masterclass by legendary singing teacher Vera Rósza, and won the prestigious Wingate Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. She was chosen by Opera Now Magazine as one of their top ten high flying sopranos destined to have impressive careers, in which a personal highlight has been a masterclass with Montserrat Caballé. Ilona is also an actress and has developed and performed a one woman show based on songs sung by Marlene Dietrich, Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf.

As you would expect this concert will be a programme full of musical gems from the waltz kings of Vienna – the Strauss family – with an array of waltzes, marches and polkas from this talented musical dynasty who dominated the music scene in Vienna throughout the 19th century. Alongside these evergreen favourites Richard Balcombe has also included songs by Ivor Novello and Oscar Straus (no relation), Charmaine (made famous by Mantovani) and the Westminster Waltz by Robert Farnon. The full concert programme is available at: www.brightonphil.org.uk/concerts  

We are most grateful to the John Carewe Brighton Orchestra Trust for their continued support of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and of our annual New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala.

 

Tickets £12.50-£39.50 (50% student/under18 discount, children just £1) are available from Brighton Dome Ticket Office, 01273 709709, www.brightondome.org

Discounted parking for concert-goers is available in the NCP Church Street Car Park – just £6 between 1pm and 6pm. Simply collect a follow-on ticket at the concert.

 

 

 

 

 

English National Ballet: The Nutcracker

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London Coliseum, 13 December 2018

An Elkin Christmas is not complete without a good Nutcracker and a decent Messiah (latter next week although I’m not reviewing it). There are several Nutcrackers in town at the moment but this rather sumptuous offering from English National Ballet, first staged in 2010, more than ticks my boxes with its puppet theatre, hot air balloon and red-eyed mice.

I have long thought that Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker score is one of the most evocative ever written not least because of its sublimely colourful orchestration. Gavin Sutherland and English National Ballet Philharmonic make a pretty good job of delivering it, helped by the Coliseum’s generous acoustic. You can hear all the detail played from different corners of the pit from the pianissimo filigree string work in Waltz of the Flowers to the bass clarinet in The Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy. Every note is allowed to tell its own story.

This is a pretty conventional Nutcracker in that the framing device is firmly in place. We begin and end in Clara’s bedroom. Children (Tring Park School for Performing Arts) play the young Clara and Freddie. Others from Tring Park, who also form a choir, and young dancers from English National Ballet School appear in some of the ensemble scenes.

Rina Kanehara as the “adult” Clara looks very childlike but dances with mature assurance. Partnered by Fernando Carratala Coloma as the Nutcracker Prince, she is a compelling performer. Both dancers make leaps and lifts look effortless. Kanehara gets a spontaneous round of applause for her sustained pirouettes and her Sugar Plum lives up to its name. Coloma is immaculately lithe spending more time airborne than on the ground in his two Act 2 solo spots. I really admired their pas de deux too – charismatically danced against Tchaikovsky’s heavy brass alternating with piccolo.

There’s some lovely work from the corps de ballet in this production too with an especially attractive pink-tinged Waltz of the Flowers. Wayne Eagling’s choreography is particularly fresh and interesting here with lots of sweeping shapes and formations.

Amongst the set pieces presented by Drosselmeyer (Fabian Reimar – good) the exciting Spanish Dance stands out. And the Arabian Dance is as silkily seductive – leaning into the minor harmony – as I’ve ever heard it. Most of these dances were taken at sedate tempo which enhances the music but requires and gets even more control from the dancers than usual.

I’m struck too by the way the industry has progressed to enlightenment in recent years. No longer, it seems, is absolute uniformity of height and build imposed on female ballet dancers. Some of these women are taller than the men they’re dancing with and of course it matters not one iota. I smiled happily through every bar and step.

Susan Elkin