Summer Recitalsxa02xa0atxa0Down Arts Centre
George Fleetonxa0© 2013
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George Fleeton[/caption]Thexa0second of two Summer Recitals was given in Down Arts Centre on June 27.
Titledxa0Songs of the Glens and a little bit of Opera, it perfectly complemented the previous week’s Recital, an account of which was published here, at Down News, on June 21.
Thisxa0latter Recital featured two locally-based musicians, pianist Elizabeth Bicker and mezzo-soprano Debra Stuart, and their special guest tenor Eugene O’Hagan.
The first two songs set thexa0tone and the pace: Carl Hardebeck’s celebration of one of the nine Glens of Antrim -xa0The Song of Glendunxa0- the one just above Cushendun, with its Lanyon viaduct-style bridge.
Hardebeck, who was a Londoner, and blind from infancy,xa0was a classically trained composer and arranger who embraced the revival of Irish traditional music.
Very neglected since his death in 1945, it is long past time to give him due credit for his musicianship, which was seen and heard to great effect, for over 50 years, in Belfast, Cork and Dublin.
Eugene O’Hagan’s second song was much more familiar to the capacity audience on the day: Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of Yeats’ poemxa0Down by the Salley Gardens.
Kathleen Ferrier was one of the first to record this exceptional art song, in the late 1940’s, and two months ago it appeared on Debra Stuart’s first solo album.
Debra herself then tookxa0to the stage with two songs from her native Scotland: thexa0Eriskay Love Lilt, one of the songs collected and transcribed by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser for her collection ‘Songs from the Hebrides’; and Robert Burns’xa0O whistle an’ I’ll come to ye.
These were followed by Hamilton Harty’s song about cutting, withering and burningxa0Sea Wrack,xa0which closed the circle by taking us back to the Sea of Moyle and Cushendun.
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At the recital in the Down Arts Centre were special tenor Eugene O’Hagan with pianist Elizabeth Bicker and mezzo-soprano Debra Stuart.[/caption]Finally, in this part of an innovative and engaging programme, we heard two traditional airs, favourites of Eugene O’Hagan:xa0My Lagan Lovexa0in Harty’s classical-style arrangement, first recorded by John McCormack over a hundred years ago – a perfect travelling companion for the earlierxa0Salley Gardens -xa0and thenxa0Song in Exile, by Northern Ireland composer Dorothy Parke, who is perhaps even less well-known than Carl Hardebeck.
The second part of the programme was much more operatic in theme.
Debra Stuart sang two arias – impeccably well:xa0Che farò senza Euridice, Orfeo’s lament on losing Euridice, in Gluck’s 1762 opera.
Andxa0Siébel’s aria from Gounod’s operaxa0Faustxa0(1859),xa0Faites-lui mes aveux, yet another operatic ‘flower song’ (although Siébel had no luck with flowers, as they shrivelled up in his hands).
Eugene O’Hagan’s aria choice was from an opera I’ve never heard performed in Ireland (although it did surface in Wexford in 1975).
This was Lalo’s Lexa0Roi d’Ysxa0(1888) and we had the aubade, or morning love song, of a knight courting a Breton king’s daughter,xa0Vainement, ma bien-aiméexa0(an evening love song, by the way, is a serenade).
Thexa0Prithee, pretty maidenxa0duet fromxa0Patiencexa0came next and so we were two encores short of an hour’s excellent music making.
The penultimate contribution was Debra Stuart’s rendition of La Périchole’s Act 1 tipsy ariaxa0Ah! Quel dȋner je viens de faire,xa0written by Jacques Offenbach for one of his middle period operettas.
And this well attended and well appreciatedxa0Recital ended with Havelock Nelson’s equally amusingxa0Dirty Work, and its strange recipe for tea, which I think was written for the late Bernadette Greevy.
For the record, Eugene O’Hagan is singingxa0Ko-Ko inxa0The Mikadoxa0and Sir Joseph Porter inxa0HMS Pinaforexa0atxa0the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton Derbyshire in August.
Full details atxa0www.lyricoperaproductions.com
Andxa0Debra Stuart’s first solo album
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Maria Callas.[/caption]Wherexa0The Heart Is – Songs of Scotland and Irelandxa0was released in April.
Full details atxa0www.debrastuart.co.uk
George Fleeton’s musical tribute to Maria Callas takes place in Calary Co. Wicklow on July 05 at 8.00pm.
Ticketsxa0and directions are available from the promoterxa0[email protected]
Callas in Calary
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