Bungay Choral Society - Programme of forthcoming events
May 8th at St Mary's Church |
“Purcell's Dido and Aeneas” |
“Zadok the Priest” and “My Heart is Indicting” |
May 8th 2010 at St Mary's Church Bungay.
Tickets £8 from Wightman's of Bungay - School children free
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
Handels’ Coronation Anthems “Zadok the Priest” and “ My Heart is Inditing”
Zadok the Priest is a coronation anthem composed by George Frideric Handel using texts from the King James Bible. It is one of the four Coronation Anthems that Handel composed for the coronation of George II of Great Britain in 1727, and has been sung at every subsequent British coronation service.
It is traditionally performed during the sovereign's anointing.
Henry Purcell ( 1659-1695) Dido and Aeneas.
Dido and Aeneas is a tragic love story. Nahum Tate's libretto is from his play, "The Enchanted Lovers" and book 4 of Virgil's Aeneid.
Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage, entertains the Trojan Prince Aeneas, who has been shipwrecked on his way to Italy.
They fall in love. Witches plot Dido's destruction and the Sorceress conjures up a storm, to break out when the royal lovers are out hunting, and the impersonation of Mercury by one of her coven.
The storm breaks and the courtiers hasten back to town, while the false Mercury tells Aeneas he must leave Dido and sail to Italy. Aeneas and his crew prepare to leave, to the delight of the witches.
Aeneas parts from his lover and sails away.
When he has gone, torn with grief, Dido stabs herself.
As she is dying, she sings the famous lament, "When I am laid in earth", which, together with the final chorus, is a most powerfully moving climax to the opera.
The part of Dido will be sung by Hillary Kenway.
HILLARY KENWAY
Hillary Kenway (Soprano) grew up in Bridport (where at seventeen she first performed the role of Dido,) studied at the University of Birmingham then pursued her musical studies at the Royal College of Music in London and with Walther Gruner. Awarded the Mozart Prize in the Francisco Vinas International Singing Competition in Barcelona she went on to become a finalist at the International Concours de Toulouse.
She was a member of the BBC Singers broadcasting as both a soloist and chorally, before embarking on a free-lance solo career of oratorio and recital work in the UK and Europe appearing with most of the major orchestras. A sequence of millennium "Messiah" performances took her to France and Germany and more recently she appeared at concerts in the Anjou area of France singing Handel’s Ode to St Cecilia and Mozart's Regina Coeli.
Latest concert performances include Mozart’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Beethoven’s Mass in C. Previous appearances with the Bungay Choral Society were as Gabriel in Haydn’s Creation and in last year’s performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle
Since 2004 she has also been musical director of the Beaminster Singers.
JOHN HERFORD ( AENEAS)
Johnny Herford, baritone, is studying with Mark Wildman and Iain Ledingham at the Royal Academy of Music. After graduating with a First in Music from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, he sang as a Lay Clerk in the choir of St. John’s College. During this time he also appeared in various opera productions, as Nero and Quintus in Three Portraits of Nero and as Directeur in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias. More recent operatic performances have included the rôle of ‘Der Mann’ in the UK premiere of Hindemith’s Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen (for Ardente Opera), Count Gil in Wolf-Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret (Little Opera Company), Morales in Bizet’s Carmen in Oxford (Oxford International Links), and King Albanact in Orpheus Britannicus, a staged performance of Purcell’s theatrical music at Cadogan Hall (the Mercurius Company).
He is an active recitalist and has sung Schumann, Wolf, Strauss, Brahms, Mahler, Ravel, Purcell, Britten and Webern, in addition to premières of new songs by himself and contemporaries. In May he performed a programme of Fauré songs at a recital at Kings Place, London, and in October sang Schumann’s Myrthen at the Holywell Music Room for the Oxford Lieder Festival. Solo performances with orchestras have included Mahler’s Rückertlieder, Händel’s Israel in Egypt and Messiah, Bach’s Passions, Tippett’s The Child Of Our Time, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Brahms’ German Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. As a choral singer he has performed with Philharmonia Voices, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Polyphony and stile antico, with whom he recorded the celebrated disc “Heavenly Harmonies”. He is a Gentleman of the Choir of the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace.
Johnny has been generously supported by the John Lewis Partnership, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Josephine Baker Trust.
ROSEMARY GREENHALGH ( Contralto “ THE SORCERESS”)
At 17 Rosemary was the youngest student to win the Martin Attwater Award to study singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she subsequently graduated and won prizes for English and French Song.
Described by the Times as having a “rich creamy Mezzo-contralto voice”, Rosemary sang as a soloist throughout this country and Europe. Appearing mainly in Oratorio, she also sang the parts of the Sorceress and Dido on tour with the Deller Consort and took part regularly in the Stour and Petersfield festivals. Her performances of Sir Arthur Bliss’ “Lie Strewn the White Flocks”, was warmly received by Lady Bliss and Yehudi Menhuin. A chorister and soloist for Radio Suisse Italia, in Lugano; in this country, Rosemary has worked with the avante garde London Sinfonietta, London Voices and the Linden Singers.
LUCY HARVEY ( SOPRANO BELINDA)
Lucy Harvey – Soprano – was raised and educated in Bungay, and was an active member of North Suffolk County Music Service, initially as a flautist.
On joining the Suffolk Jubilee Choir in 1999 (which later became the Harmony Girls Choir), she discovered a love for singing. This led her to the Birmingham Conservatoire, where she is studying with Margaret Field.
Her main passion is opera and so far roles have included Barbarina and The Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Cis in Britten’s Albert Herring, and Amori in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, as well as chorus work with the Conservatoire.
Lucy is a keen choral singer, singing with St. Chad’s cathedral choir and Birmingham Conservatoire chamber choir. She is also a member of the up and coming vocal octet ‘Harmon8’ with whom she regularly performs across the U K.
Music from the Baroque period and oratorio are of special interest to Lucy. She is currently receiving coaching from Baroque specialist, Andrew King. Lucy was recently the soloist in the Conservatoire’s performance of Handel’s Messiah.
She is also making a name for herself as a singing teacher, both in Birmingham and Suffolk.
As a former member of the Choral Society, Lucy is thrilled to return as a soloist on this occasion !
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