Festival heroes
ALONGSIDE all the concerts at the Newbury Spring Festival in September (4-20) are a series of performances that are a mixture of concert and play, possibly more aptly called musical theatre, and others are not concerts at all but interesting talks.
Who doesn’t love cabaret? On September 5, at the Corn Exchange, contralto Hilary Summers will take the audience on a hilarious romp through the highs and lows of opera, including specially composed songs such as an Introduction to Baroque Opera and I’m a Puccini heroine addict, as well as some arias and a 25-minute reduction of Mozart’s masterpiece The Magic Flute. Heroines of Love and Loss, on September 7 in St Nicolas’ Church, is more musical than play, but the universal themes of love and loss are reflected in this intimate programme of 16th- and 17th-century music.
The soprano Ruby Hughes is joined by fellow musicians on the lute and cello with a selection of music that casts a spotlight on classical heroines of the time.
Everybody knows Rachmaninov... or do they? Russian Soul: The Story of Rachmaninov in Song tells a dramatic tale that starts in Imperial Russia and ends in Beverly Hills and goes through penniless exile and comfortless fame. Soprano IIona Domnich, pianist Sholto Kynoch and broadcaster Michael White have put together a words-and-music concert to explain all on September 15 at the Corn Exchange.
Talks at the Newbury Spring
Festival are always popular and this year there are three. The first is on September 9 when Colin Harrison, from the Ashmolean Museum will discuss their collection of stringed instruments with reference to the most famous violin in the world, Stradivari’s Messiah.
On 14 September distinguished biographer and historian Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill:
Walking with Destiny, explores the role of our greatest war-time leader in the Allied victory of the Second World War. The third talk, on September 16, is given by Sir Nicholas Kenyon, managing director of London’s Barbican Centre and former director of the BBC Proms who will talk about his new book
The Life of Music: New Adventures
in the Western Classical Tradition.
All talks will take place in the Corn Exchange.
For more information go to www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk