Cambridge Philharmonic Society
A Night at the Opera
West Road Concert Hall
Sunday 25 November 2007

West Road was packed out for the Cambridge Philharmonic Society’s second concert of the season. No wonder, with copious excerpts of Verdi and from Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ on the programme. But there was also − as is so often the case with the ‘Phil’s’ enterprising programmes, music that cannot have been all that familiar to much of the enthusiastic audience.

This was a suite from Jonathan Dove’s ‘Flight’, excitingly scored (how did the walls of West Road stand it?) and full of colourful orchestral effects, a sound world, as conductor Tim Redmond’s helpful programme note rightly said, in which we are led, willingly to be moved, excited and entertained. So far, so good. But wait − there was also an aria from the opera that demonstrate Mr Dove’s capacity to set and colour musically English words with a fine feel for the rhythm, the sense and the natural rise and fall of the spoken intonation of the words. Mr Dove is this season’s ‘featured’ composer in the Phil’s impressive programme. I look forward to hearing more of his music. (Incidentally, I wonder if his carol, ‘The Three Kings’, written specially for the Choir of King’s College, happens to feature in the Christmas Carol Service this year?)

The evening’s soloist, was the stunning mezzo Heather Shipp, who captivated the audience with her brilliantly characterised singing, not only in her aria from ‘Flight’, but also in her racy and rousing performance of the Rataplan from ‘La Forza del Destino’ and − above all − with the Habanera from ‘Carmen’. Throughout the evening, from the forceful opening of the overture to ‘La Forza’ to the spirited ending of the Toreador’s march from Bizet’s masterpiece, the Phil’s orchestra were on excellent form, as in general was the chorus (though I fancy Mr Redmond would have been grateful for a few more tenors and basses in the triumph scene from Act II of ‘Aida’⒊).

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