A Night At The Opera, 2013

WIT Music School, College Street Campus, May 2013

Written by Pat McEvoy, Arts Correspondent, Waterford News & Star, ‘A View from the Green Room’.

A SENSATIONAL NIGHT AT THE OPERA AT WIT.

This was a huge night for conductor Niall Crowley whose concert performance was being examined by a panel of academics for a Master of Arts degree in performance conducting. And Niall’s programme was adventurous, exciting and downright brave with massed choirs, soloists and the WIT Symphony Orchestra under leader Teresa Costello in front of a sell-out audience that delayed the start because of the numbers seeking access to the college chapel. Niall set out his stall with a courageous programme of well-known pieces that needed to be just right and the standing ovation at the close of the concert was an acknowledgment of a job well done by the young Waterford conductor.

The overture to Maritana—full of brassy fanfares, solos for all sections of the orchestra, swift time changes and accelerated strings—brought great ‘attack’ to the concert right from the beginning. All of the elements in the opera to follow were sensitively teased out by Crowley. We knew that Maritana would promise drama, conflict, romance, celebration and that ultimately love would triumph from the assurance of the crescendo that concluded Wallace’s overture. Bridget Knowles sang the famous Gluck aria ‘Che faro senza Euridice’ (what shall I do without Euridice) that is full of Orfeo’s grief at the death of Euridice. This is a very strong, dramatic aria and Bridget’s rich expressive mezzo-soprano voice filled the WIT chapel with a soulful intensity.  The Waterford Male Voice Choir lived up to their deserved reputation as a choir with two contrasting pieces: a very manly interpretation of Weber’s ‘Huntsman’s Chorus’ that was full of pastoral excitement with large vigorous work from the French horns and Mozart’s ‘Priests’ Chorus, that featured a gentle accompaniment  from the basses. There was a great sense of connection between band, choir and conductor with clean entries and exits, colourful and expressive harmonies, and definitive interpretation of both pieces. Soprano Roisin O’Grady and mezzo Bridget Knowles dueted Mozart’s ‘Sull Aria Che Soave Zeffiretto’—a little song on the breeze—that was full of layered entries with subtle string accompaniment before Eoin Power’s assured and expressive baritone gave us Bizet’s Toreador Song with huge accompaniment from the Waterford Male Voice Choir that swaggered with bravado and courage and dreams of combat. Eoin was in great form—full of passion and drama.

This carried though after the interval with Faust’s lusty ‘Soldiers Chorus’ and also Wagner’s soulful, prayerful ‘Pilgrim’s Chorus’, with its mellow sensual cello introduction, as the penitents path finally leads them home. It is a joy to see a choir working with conductor Niall Crowley, without their heads buried in scores. This choir, with its power and talent, should consider a Christmas oratorio in conjunction with some other choirs to fill a real gap in the arts calendar in the region.

Roisin O’Grady’s Juliet sang of the joy of life in Gounod’s ‘Je Veux Vivre’ (I want to live…in this dream) and all of the young lover’s ebullience and rich nature tumbled out in that soaring climax to the aria before Niall Crowley gave us the stillness of the intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavaliera Rusticana—a moving piece that laments the hurt of a spurned love. Bridget Knowles and Roisín O’Grady blended effortlessly in the Flower Duet from Delibes’s Lakmé. The secret of this piece is the way the singers capture that sense of peace and morning beauty as they go about their chores. The concert then concluded with two massive choruses from the Waterford Male Voice Choir, joined by female choirs Voci and the Edmund Rice Choral Society for Verdi’s Anvil Chorus and Wallace’s Angelus Chorus that brought a standing ovation for a piece that was written by a Waterford composer, sung by  Waterford voices, performed by the Waterford Institute of Technology orchestra on a day when its future as a technological university was announced, and conducted by a young Waterford musical director in front of a packed Waterford audience.

 Carlsberg don’t do opera nights at WIT, but if they did…