Performances
by Juliette | 11.15.11 | Latest News, Performances, Singing
I’ve been too busy in recent months to do much in the way of singing, but I certainly made up for it this weekend. Elijah on Saturday, which really is a 1st rate example of 2nd rate music. Then at 9 o’clock the next morning the phone rang. At the risk of sharing too much information, I was still in my dressing gown and 2nd cup of coffee. It did seem odd that my agent had decided to ring at 9am on a Sunday morning to enquire about my plans for the day, so despite being touched by her concern, I did immediately smell a rat. A mezzo had just phoned in sick and she was due to sing the Verdi Requiem in Brighton Dome later that day. I LOVE singing the Verdi Requiem. Singing a Requiem on Remembrance Day is always a very moving experience and Barry Wordsworth was conducting, Brighton Phil playing and my favourite chorus, Brighton Festival were to be the choir. No-brainer, but then the stress-factor; 10:30 rehearsal and 2:30 performance. So then followed a mad half hour sorting childcare and getting my concert stuff together, (the bright red dress already in my case from last night would hardly be appropriate for a Requiem). Typical woman worrying about the dress rather than having a sing through to check I could remember the piece well enough.
But, standing in for someone else at the last minute is a marvellous way to perform. If you can let go of the fact that you weren’t chosen to sing in the 1st place, you are onto a total winner. Everyone is so delighted you’ve turned up and saved the day before you even open your mouth. The audience love the drama. If you sing well you are amazing and if you sing badly, well, it’s only to be expected at such short notice and you still remain a trooper. More »
by Juliette | 06.27.11 | Latest News, Performances
It is simply impossible to park in Bath on a Saturday. My rehearsal for the Mozart Requiem was at 2pm in Bath Abbey, and I was running late as usual. Why does the last little bit, once you are off the M4, take double the time of the rest of the journey? I do realise a much reduced speed limit might play a part. So, even though I managed for once in my life to navigate successfully the one-way system of a city I don’t live in, I then couldn’t find a car park vaguely near the Abbey with spaces in it. Eventually I found a space on the dot of 2pm.
More »
Tags: Bath Abbey, parking in BAth
by Juliette | 06.14.11 | Domestic Diva, Latest News, Performances
Belton House
As the parents of 2 year olds, we are very used to sleepless nights, it’s to be expected, goes with the territory etc etc. But we had to stay up all night last week for a different reason. Our studio basement flooded with the torrential rain and we had a full on fight to keep the water out. We won, the carpet is saved (hallelujah), but spare a thought for the client we had booked in at 9am the next morning. Dehumidifiers on and our eyes propped open with matchsticks. More »
Tags: basement flooding, Belton House Prom, Guildford Cathedral operatic evening
by Juliette | 05.10.11 | Latest News, Performances, Record Producing
Greetings from The Mercury Theatre in Colchester. I’m sitting in a café before the concert tonight frantically learning words as I’ve just found out I’m not singing one of the arias I’d prepared, but another one. To be fair there are 2 arias nicknamed the Tipsy Song, one by Offenbach and one by Strauss. I considered trying to fit the Offenbach melody over the Strauss orchestral accompaniment but decided it might be too dissonant for the people of Colchester.
We’ve recently been recording with the people in the photo. I went to college with Paul, a very talented operatic bass you More »
Tags: Carmen, colchester, English National Opera, Mercury Theatre, Robert Plant, Ross Anthony
by Juliette | 03.18.11 | Latest News, Performances
Belton House
For all those of you WWII aircraft enthusiasts, I have uploaded more details of this Prom concert on June 4th with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Weather permitting (here we go again!) there should be an aircraft display as part of the evening entertainment. I remember watching Charlie Brown flypast in his Spitfire at a Castle Howard Prom I was performing in a couple of years back and found myself feeling very moved by it. More »
Tags: aircraft display, spitfire proms and flypast
by Juliette | 03.10.11 | Latest News, Performances, Twin news
Taverner is one of those composers that is wonderful to listen to live or in a darkened room, it’s meditative quality transports you to another world.
BUT…
it’s jolly dull to learn and sing. Such long, repetitive, sustained, repetitive (sorry did I say that already) phrases.
James took the boys to the park this morning while I did some notebashing of the Taverner for the concerts in Brighton on 1st/2nd April.
He returned an hour later, white as a sheet and shaking. Apparently all was well until he got Arthur out of his swing, More »
Tags: reins on toddlers, swings, Taverner Fragments of a Prayer
by Juliette | 02.08.11 | Latest News, Performances
I’ve posted some new concert dates under the Live Dates category, and speaking of which, I’m crossing my fingers, legs and hell, I’ll even plait my hair if a possible concert in Thailand comes off in November. James has offered to accompany me on the piano…
I’m really looking forward to learning what is a new Taverner work for me, called Fragments of a Prayer. It was written for the film Children of Men. If you haven’t seen it, it shows the human race in the future in a state of despair and on the verge of dying out. There hasn’t been the birth of a new baby in years and then, suddenly, a woman becomes pregnant and a child is born. Fragments of a Prayer is a musical reaction More »
Tags: Barber's Adagio, Brighton Festival Chorus, Children of Men, Taverner's Fragments of a Prayer
by Juliette | 12.22.10 | Domestic Diva, Latest News, Performances
For anyone who is still under the misapprehension that the life of a singer is in any way glamourous, read on. Sunday, the day of my RPO/ Brighton Festival Chorus gig, started early with a message from my childminder saying she was really poorly and in bed. So, I rang my very own fairy godmother (Mum) and asked if she would mind having the kids for the day. Short notice I grant but it was that or sing with a baby on each hip. Not the accessories I had in mind to go with my red satin gown.
I had to get to Mum’s from London, about 2 hours normally but going at 30 miles an hour along the treacherous, snow covered M25, it took considerably longer. More »
Tags: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
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