Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director and producer Ewa Salecka
PRIMA Choral Artists will perform two Family Christmas concerts at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, on December 14 and 21.
“As the festive season approaches, I’m thrilled to present a new series of two very special 4pm concerts in the heart of York,” says Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director and producer Ewa Salecka.
“Residents and visitors alike are warmly invited to join the Prima Choral Artists, New World String Quartet, pianist Greg Birch and guest musicians for two afternoons of Christmas music for all ages.
“These feel-good, one-hour concerts of instrumental and choral music guarantee high-spirited festive favourites, from Carol Of The Bells, Sleigh Ride and The Sussex Carol to stunning choral arrangements of much-loved seasonal pieces from respected contemporary choral composers.”
On the billboard: Prima Vocal Ensemble in New York
Uplifting music, including pieces by Tchaikovsky and Vladimir Rebikov, will be performed by New World String Quartet, while audience carols will include Hark The Herald Angels Sing, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Ding Dong Merrily On High.
Under Salecka’s baton, Prima Vocal Ensemble, a progressive mixed-voice York choir with a reputation for musical diversity, have enjoyed a typically exhilarating year of events in 2024, fuelled by her desire to push the boundaries of choral performance.
“With consecutive sell-out events at home and exciting collaborations in the United States, Prima continue to attract talented singers and raise the bar for choir experiences in the area,” says Ewa, who combines all-embracing creative concert programming with modern and effective vocal coaching and more than 20 years of conducting experience.
“Since the pandemic, I’ve worked passionately on a gentle re-profiling of the choir. For the singers, this has meant embracing new challenges, with ever-higher standards of performance.
Prima Vocal Ensemble members in New York in June 2024
“And they rise to each and every challenge! When I reflect on the sense of excitement and commitment each person shows every week, superlatives fail me. I’m so extremely proud of this group and their constant open-minded approach to new ideas, new genres and new projects. I feel very fortunate to lead them in creativity.”
In June, the choir enjoyed a reunion concert with double Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin at New York’s iconic Carnegie Hall, strengthening Salecka’s already phenomenal connections with American choral producers.
On November 23, Prima performed Opera Nights, Broadway Lights! at the National Centre for Early Music, York, showcasing the best of opera and musical theatre. “This concert sold out two months ahead of the event and due to its popularity may be repeated,” says Ewa.
Next year will mark the 15th anniversary of Prima Vocal Ensemble. “We are always happy to hear from new singers who wish to add their voices to this progressive group,” says Ewa.
Prima Vocal Ensemble taking part in a concert at Carnegie Hall, New York in June 2024
“All voice types are welcome to apply. There is a waiting list for sopranos and altos, but if any tenors or basses would like to sign up, you can be sure that I am always on the leading edge of contemporary choral trends. There are no formal auditions and you are guaranteed a brilliant time. Please email info@primavocalensemble.com for more details.”
To find out more about Prima and the opportunities to be enjoyed with the choir, visit primavocalensemble.com.
Family Christmas with Prima Choral Artists, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, December 14 and 21, 4pm to 5pm; doors 3.30pm.Tickets update: selling fast for both concerts, available from primavocalensemble.com in the final chance to experience Prima until 2025.
PHOTOGRAPHY, 3D imagery and video complement live performance in Art Sung’s exploration of Edith Sitwell’s iconic work Façade in Saturday’s concluding concert of York Late Music’s 2024 programme.
Edith Sitwell, Behind Her Façade is a semi-dramatised song recital that looks at the unusual and eccentric life of the flamboyant 20th century poet.
At 7.30pm, Art Sung tell Dame Edith Sitwell’s story in her own words, both spoken and sung, beginning with her troubled childhood at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, where she fell in love with a peacock, leading to a life of celebrity and notoriety in London, Paris and the United States of America.
It encompasses her encounters with various celebrities, most notably Noël Coward, with whom she was on non-speaking terms for 30 years after he parodied her in a West End revue, and Marilyn Monroe, with whom she got on famously, much to everyone’s surprise.
Edith also became a favourite subject for painters such as Wyndham Lewis, Roger Fry, and Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew. The aesthetics of the art world from this period are the inspiration for the bespoke visual material that accompanies Saturday’s recital.
Woven through the narrative of the recital will be the story of Façade, the extraordinary musical entertainment that Sitwell created together with the then unknown composer William Walton.
His jazz-inspired music accompanied her poems that she recited through a megaphone from behind a curtain backdrop. The Sitwells saw this as an abstract method of providing poetry to an audience, without drawing attention to themselves. Ironically it had the opposite effect of turning them into celebrities.
“Saturday will be a multi-media performance with dance, animation and the interweaving of new music and poetry with excepts from Walton and Edith’s Façade and music by Britten, Bernstein and Satie, among others,” says Late Music co-programmer, composer and lecturer Hayley Jenkins, from the York St John University School of Arts.
“Elizabeth Mucha, the director, has cleverly interwoven these elements to illustrate Edith’s story via multiple characters performed by tenor Michael Gibson and contra-alto Lucy Stevens as Edith.
“This will be an evening with a difference for Late Music: we haven’t had a production on this scale for a very long time,so we are very excited to host it after such excellent reviews from Buckingham Festival, Barnes, New Malden and London Song Festival.”
Here Art Sung’s founder, Scottish-Polish pianist Elizabeth Mucha, discusses Edith Sitwell, Behind Her Façade
Art Sung founder Elizabeth Mucha
What songs from this iconic work will be included in the programme?
“There will be movements from Façade by William Walton and Edith Sitwell, arranged for piano duet by Walton’s great friend Constant Lambert. These will include Popular Song, Fox-Trot, Swiss Yodelling Song, Scotch Rhapsody and Valse.
“There will also be music for piano duet, played by myself and Nigel Foster: extracts from the ballet Parade by Erik Satie and Leonard Bernstein’s America from West Side Story.
“The programme also includes songs by William Walton, Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem, Michael Head and Noël Coward, as well as songs specially commissioned for this programme by Dominique le Gendre and York Late Music’s very own Hayley Jenkins.”
What is Art Sung?
‘”We are an ensemble of singers, pianist, actor and visual artists that creates connections between music, art and story in a series of semi-dramatised song recitals. Our projects have focused to date on women whose artistic careers have not received the recognition they deserve.
“Their stories are told in their own words drawn from first-hand sources, such as diaries and letters, with songs and music which reflect, comment or elaborate on the narrative, together with the creatively projected artwork.”
What is the story behind the Art Sung – Edith Sitwell: Behind Her Façade project?
“In 2022, I formed a piano duo with Nigel Foster (director of the London Song Festival). We are the London Piano Duo and one of our programmes that year included several movements from Façade by Walton.
“As we both have a huge interest in adding context to programmes through narrative and visuals, we thought it would be a great idea to join forces to create an Art Sung to tell the background story of how Façade came into being. And so, Art Sung – Edith Sitwell: Behind Her Façade was born as we joined forces with the London Song Festival in 2023 to create it.
“This is Art Sung’s fourth production and celebrates the premiere of Edith Sitwell’s collaboration with composer William Walton in 1923 on the musical entertainment Façade, as well as exploring her colourful and dramatic life.”
Who is involved in the Art Sung project?
“Lucy Stevens is both a singer and actor, who is touring with her one-woman show about singer Kathleen Ferrier. Last year, she was nominated for an OffFest Award (Edinburgh Fringe 2023) for her one-woman show about singer/actress Gertrude Lawrence.
“Michael Gibson is a tenor whose many roles have included: Borsa (Rigoletto), Young Servant (Elektra), Normanno (Lucia di Lammermoor), Heinrich (Tannhäuser), Pong (Turandot), Gastone (LaTraviata) and Ruiz (Il Trovatore).
“Pianist Nigel Foster is director of the London Song Festival, a prestigious festival that showcases the song repertoire and provides a performance platform for young singers. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and on television in several European countries.
“Roxani Eleni Garefalaki is a performance artist, director and movement instructor from Athens, based in London. She has directed the previous three Art Sung productions and is part of the visual team that creates the bespoke imagery.
“James Symonds is the videographer. Under the guise of Symian, he mixes digital filmmaking, sound production, programming and 3D design to produce large-format exhibition work, theatre staging and ‘live’ visual events for companies.”
And yourself, Elizabeth?
“I am a pianist, scriptwriter and producer. I have been fortunate enough to perform throughout Europe, the Americas and the Far East as a song accompanist, chamber musician and solo pianist. I have broadcast on the BBC and other classical music stations in Holland, Brazil, Canada and the Philippines.
“I also had the great pleasure of performing at Late Music in 2019 with baritone Robert Rice. I’m very much looking forward to performing again at Late Music.”
For more information and tickets and to download a free programme, go to: latemusic.org. Elizabeth Mucha and composer Hayley Jenkins will give a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm with a complimentary glass of mulled wine and a mince pie. Box office:https://latemusic.org/product/art-sung-concert-tickets-sat-7-dec-730pm/
William Walton (1902-1983) and Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) – Popular Song (extract) from Façade
Hayley Jenkins (b.1990) and Olivia Diamond (b.1947) – Be A Strange Bird In A Tame Pond
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Fox-Trot (extract) from Façade
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Old Sir Faulk (extract) from Three Songs
Michael Head (1900-1976) and Edith Sitwell – The King Of China’s Daughter
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – En Famille (extract) from Façade
William Walton and Anon – Rhyme from A Song For The Lord Mayor’s Table
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Daphne from Three Songs
Ned Rorem (1923-2022) and Edith Sitwell – You, The Young Rainbow
William Walton and Charles Morris (1745-1838) – The Contrast from A Song For The Lord Mayor’s Table
Erik Satie (1866-1925) – Extracts from the ballet Parade: Prélude du Rideau Rouge; Petite Fille Américaine; Rag-time du Paquebot
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and Anon – Rats Away (extract) from Our Hunting Fathers Op 8
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Tango-Pasodoblé (extract) from Façade
Hayley Jenkins and Olivia Diamond – Edith Regina
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Valse (extract) from Façade
Robert Marchant (1916-1995) and Edith Sitwell – When Sir Beelzebub
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Popular Song (extract) from Façade
Interval
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Popular Song (extract) from Façade
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Valse from Façade
Noël Coward (1899-1973) – Poor Little Rich Girl from On With The Dance
Ned Rorem (1923-2022) and Edith Sitwell – The Youth With The Red-Gold Hair
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Swiss Jodelling Song from Façade
Dominique le Gendre (b. 1960) and Olivia Diamond (b. 1947) – Pavel…You…
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and Edith Sitwell – Canticle III, Op 55 – Still Falls The Rain
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) – America from West Side Story
Lloyd Moore (b. 1966) and Edith Sitwell – Bells Of Grey Crystal
Joseph Horovitz (1926-2022) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Lady Macbeth (extract)
William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Scotch Rhapsody from Façade
Roxani Eleni Garefalaki: Director and movement director
Edith Sitwell (1887-1964): the back story
BORN into an aristocratic family in 1887, she shot to fame in the 1920s through her unique and inventive collaboration with composer William Walton on her poems Façade. She was a favourite subject for portraitists of the 1920s, including John Singer Sargent, Roger Fry, Wyndham Lewis and Pavel Tchelitchew and was immortalised in black and white by society photographer Cecil Beaton.
Together with her brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell, the Sitwell literary trio became trend setters in the 1920s and 1930s, considered by some to rival the Bloomsbury set.
Her address book read like a 20th-century Who’s Who. She knew poets and writers such as Siegfried Sassoon, Dylan Thomas, W B Yeats, T S Eliot, Aldous Huxley, D H Lawrence, Robert Graves and Virginia Woolf, along with Noël Coward, Alec Guinness and Marilyn Monroe.
Descended from Plantagenet royalty, she flaunted her unusual looks with her unique fashion sense. Her six-foot frame was encased in bohemian or medieval garb, complete with feathery hats and colourful turbans. Her hands, considered by her to be her best feature, were laden with enormous rings.
Her motto was: “Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?”
Edith’s early poems developed from fantastical, whimsical experiments with rhythm, texture and sound during the Roaring Twenties, through to her more serious poetry of the 1940s, coloured by the Second World War and the dropping of the atomic bomb, in works such as Still Falls The Rain and The Shadow Of Cain.
In the latter part of her life, she wholeheartedly embraced a return to spiritual values, both in her poetry and by converting to Roman Catholicism. By the time she died in 1964 at the age of 77, she had been made a Dame, held five honorary literary degrees from Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Sheffield and Hull and was considered the high priestess of English poetry.
In 1962, not only was a memorial concert held for her at the Royal Festival Hall, London, attended by 3,000 people, but also she appeared on the ITV programme This Is Your Life. However, only a few years after her death, her reputation crashed. She had clashed with critics publicly for more than five decades (whom she dubbed the “pipsqueakery”) and was now no longer around to defend herself as she had done so colourfully during her life.
Last year marked the centenary of the premiere of Façade in 1923. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Edith Sitwell’s death.
Did you know?
WHEN Edith Sitwell recited her Façade poems through a megaphone at the private premiere in 1922, she did so from behind a curtain backdrop designed by English artist Frank Dobson. Art Sung are “immensely grateful to film director Tony Palmer for loaning us this curtain, which was entrusted to him by Edith Sitwell’s nephew, Francis Sitwell”.
A further three curtains were designed by different artists in Edith’s lifetime, of which the John Piper curtain, created in 1942, is now considered to be the iconic Façade curtain.
For Art Sung’s performance, video artist James Symonds continues this tradition of reinventing the background to Façade with his own digital version of a curtain. Symonds visually interprets Edith’s poetry by weaving in the experimental and abstract video work by photographer Etienne Gilfillan and creates a series of animated sketches to illustrate Edith’s reminiscences.
Graham Nash: Set spanning 60 years of songwriting. Picture: Ralf Louis
GRAHAM Nash will play York Barbican on October 5 2025 on the second night of his 11-date More Evenings Of Songs & Stories tour.
The Blackpool-born two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy award winner will perform songs spanning his 60-year career, from The Hollies to Crosby, Stills and Nash, CSNY and his solo career.
Nash, 82, will be joined on stage by Todd Caldwell, keyboards and vocals, Adam Minkoff, bass, drums, guitars and vocals, and Zach Djanikian, guitars, mandolin, drums and vocals.
Nash’s set will be preceded by a performance from special guest and long-time friend Peter Asher.
Nash’s body of songwriting began with his contributions to The Hollies from 1964 to 1968, such as Stop Stop Stop and On A Carousel. The union of Crosby, Stills & Nash (and later & Young) yielded Marrakesh Express, Pre-Road Downs and Lady Of The Island, from the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album and Teach Your Children and Our House from CSNY’s Déjà Vu. His further contributions to CSN included Just A Song Before I Go and Wasted On The Way.
Nash’s career as a solo artist took flight in 1971, beginning with two landmark albums, Songs For Beginners and Wild Tales, featuring such favourites as Chicago/We Can Change The World and Military Madness. His latest album, Now, was released in May 2023.
Peter Asher’s 1964 debut single with Peter & Gordon was a cover of Lennon & McCartney’s A World Without Love. He moved in to record production in the late-1960s as head of A & R at The Beatles’ Apple Records and then at his own company, working for decades with James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and others. His performance will share music and stories from those heady days to the present era.
Australian soprano Emilia Bertolini. Picture: David Caird
INTERNATIONAL young musicians will take centre stage in the York Early Music Christmas Festival from December 6 to 15.
The National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) continues to support exceptional young talent in the field of Early music by welcoming three ensembles from Europe under the NCEM Platform Artists spotlight.
Taking part will be Australian soprano Emilia Bertolini, winner of the 2024 Corneille Competition New Voices in Normandy, promoted by Le Poème Harmonique; Contre le Temps, a medieval vocal ensemble from France, supported by the EFFEA’s artist-in-residence Discovery programme, in partnership with AMUZ, and Intesa, a duo of Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti, who met at the Royal Academy of Music.
Musaelian and Giorgetti will be staying on in York afterwards to work on Baroque Around The Books, a musical tour of York libraries in a short residency with Explore York. They formed the duo only last year and are already making their presence felt on the concert platform.
Contre le Temps: Medieval vocal ensemble from France
The NCEM has a hard-earned reputation for its support of emerging talent across Europe, running both the biennial International York Young Artists Competition and until recently they were a key partner within the Creative Europe EEEmerging programme.
Ensembles showcased by the NCEM over the past few years include Protean Quartet, Sollazzo Ensemble, winners of two Diapason d’Or de l’année awards, and BBC New Generation Artists Consone Quartet.
NCEM Delma Tomlin MBE says: “The York Early Music Christmas Festival is a firm favourite on the city’s calendar. This year I’m thrilled to welcome three ensembles to York who will no doubt be a fabulous addition to this year’s spectacular programme.
“The NCEM is dedicated to promoting the extraordinary array of talent from Europe’s vibrant Early Music scene and we are grateful to be able to continue to celebrate their music in York. We hope that this will be a regular feature in our festive programme in the years to come.”
York Early Music Christmas Festival director Delma Tomlin
The concerts from the NCEM Platform Artists will be led off by Love And Melancholy, featuring Emilia Bertolini, soprano, Sergio Bucheli, theorbo, and Lucy Chabard, harpsichord, in a musical journey into the complex world of human emotions at the NCEM on December 7.
Inspired by the haunting melodies of Henry Purcell and the French court tunes of the 17th century, this evocative 12 noon programme explores love in all its forms, from joyful ecstasy to poignant melancholy.
Contre le Temps, featuring singers Karin Weston, Cécile Walch, Julia Marty and Amy Farnell, present Ubi Sunt Mulieres at the NCEM on December 14 at 12 noon.
Women have inspired thinkers, poets and creators for thousands of years with tenderness and charm, beauty and dedication, fragility and sensuality, prompting this talented young vocal quartet to turn their gaze on to the Middle Ages, focusing on works by Guillaume Du Fay and Hildegard von Bingen, one of the most acclaimed women in music history.
Intesa’s Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti
In the third concert, at Bedern Hall, Bedern, on December 15 at 11am, Intesa’s viol and voice duo of Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti reflect on the theme of seeking light amid dark and wintry weather with music by Dowland, Hume and Caccini, alongside a selection of Armenian folk songs, in a programme entitled A Merry Conceit.
Spiritato, featuring University of York alumnus Nicolas Mendoza on harpsichord and organ, open the festival with Northern Light, their 6.30pm programme of Baroque works by Kirchoff, Thieme, Pachelbel and Bach on December 6 at the NCEM.
“This extraordinary jewel of baroque music comes from the Royal Court of Sweden, and the wealth of that court, with all the musicians and composers that flocked up there, and now these neglected pieces have been rediscovered and what glorious pieces they are,” says Delma.
Siglo de Oro will be joined by Spinacino Consort for Hey For Christmas! on December 7 at the NCEM for a 6.30pm celebration of carols, raucous ballads, beautiful folk sonhs and lively dances, as if “we arrived at your relatives’ London house in the mid-17th century for 12 days of revelry”.
Stile Antico: Performing This Joyful Birth: A musical journey through the Christian story at the National Centre for Early Music on December 12
The choral workshop led by Robert Hollingorth, founder/director of I Fagiolini, at Bedern Hall on December 8 from 10.15am to 4pm has sold out. Hollingworth will explore a soprano canon by Guerrero, darker-hued Gombert and music by Vivanco, Aleotti and Palestrina.
Solomon’s Knot, who perform everything learned off by heart, will perform Motets by Johann Sebastian and Johann Christoph Bach at the NCEM on December 8 at 6pm.
A new project brings together two Scottish musicians embedded in their own traditions: former BBC New Generation Artist Sean Shibe, who carries the torch for classical music on his guitar, and Aidan O’Rourke, the Lau fiddler deep rooted in Scottish folk culture. Together they present Luban at the NCEM on December 9.
Join them at 7.30pm to find out where they might meet midst Dowland, Johnson, O’Rourke and Cage as they share the language they find in the backstreets, byways and marginalia of ancient Scottish lute and fiddle manuscripts.
Green Matthews: Gaudete! concert at National Centre for Early Music
Green Matthews make a Christmas return to the NCEM with an expanded line-up for Gaudete!, featuring new arrangements of Chris Green and Sophie Matthews’s festive fare, embellished with Emily Baines on early woodwind and Richard Heacock on violin on December 11 at 7.30pm.
Their lush, rich and heart-warming music evokes the spirit of Christmas over 600 years from the Middle Ages to the 20th century in a riot of sound and colour.
Stile Antico take a journey through the Christian story to the manger in a glorious sequence of music from medieval and Renaissance Europe in This Joyful Birth at a sold-out NCEM on December 12.
The 7.30pm programme follows each scene of the Christmas story, beginning in Advent and moving through to the Nativity, the visits of the Shepherds and the Wise Men, and finally to the Feast of Candlemas. Highlights include Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium, motets by Byrd, Lassus and Sheppard, medieval carols and dances from Spain and Germany.
Ensemble Augelletti: “How beautifully shines the morning star”
Ensemble Augelletti, BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Baroque Ensemble, return to York to present their new Christmas programme, The Morning Star, at the NCEM on December 13 at 7pm, with Olwen Foulkes on recorders, Ellen Bundy on violin, Toby Carr on lute and Benedict Williams on harpsichord.
On December 23 1784, a letter by York astronomer Edward Pigott, recounting his discovery of a new variable star, made York the centre of the astronomical world, prompting Ensemble Augelletti to celebrate extraordinary stories of 17th and 18th astronomers with music named after stars, angels and 17th-centyry sonatas. Works by Corelli, Schmelzer and Uccellini will feature alongside settings of How Beautifully Shines The Morning Star.
Festival regulars Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque focus on Bach’s Magnificat in D and two cantatas, Unser Mund Sei Voll Lachens and Gloria In Excelsis Deo, conducted by Peter Seymour at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, on December 14 at 7.30pm.
“With its exuberant choruses, colourful orchestration and beautiful solo writing, Bach’s Magnificat captures perfectly the divine joy of a pregnant Mary,” says Peter.
Spiritato: Opening York Early Music Christmas Festival on December 6 with their Northern Light programme
Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith collaborate with Lady Maisery to close the festival with Awake Arise – A Christmas Show For Our Times at the NCEM on December 15. The 7.30pm programme “celebrates the riches of our varied winter traditions and reflects on the hope and resilience music and song that can bring joy to us all in the darkest season”.
“York Early Music Christmas Festival is the perfect choice for an atmospheric Yuletide evening away from the crowds, with this year’s festival featuring both Early and folk music performed by an array of talented artists,” says Delma.
“Most performances take place in the intimate surroundings of the National Centre for Early Music’s home, St Margaret’s Church, off Walmgate. Mince pies and mulled wine available at most concerts.”
York Early Music 210214 runs from December 6 to 15 at National Centre of Music (St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate), Bedern Hall and Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk. Full programme is available at ncem.co.uk.
Isobel Staton’s Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York on dress rehearsal night at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton. Picture: John Saunders
IT is time for pantomime, festive exhibitions, ghost stories, Elvis blues and a snow bear, as Charles Hutchinson welcomes winter.
Christmas message of hope of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm.
PAUL Toy’s community production recalls when the Mystery Plays were banned in the 17th century for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.
“Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter, with their new-born child being forced to flee to another country, but there is news of great hope and joy.” Box office: 0333 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door.
Rob Cotterill as The Mad Hatter in Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s Alice In Wonderland
Through the rabbit hole: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Alice In Wonderland, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm
FOLLOW young Alice on her adventures underground as she navigates her way through an imperfect and unfamiliar world. Discover a place where absurdity is the norm, logic is turned on its head and animals can talk in York company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s flamboyant staging for age five upwards.
Join her as she encounters many weird, wonderful and colourful characters, from the Queen of Hearts to the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Answers to riddles are non-existent, tales lack morals and injustice looms large in this Lewis Carroll tale, full of fantasy, imagination and fun, where every time is “tea-time” and nothing is ever really as it seems. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Wicked return: Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin
Look who’s back: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, December 3 to January 5 2025
PAUL Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Abanazar to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note) in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy. Look out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Changing of the old guard to the new: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, December 7 to January 5 2025
EXIT the Dame Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell era. Enter Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris, from Les Miserable, as The Prince; comedian Phil Reid as Louis La Plonk; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as his larger-than-life mum, Polly La Plonk; Phil Atkinson, from The Bodyguard, as dastardly Hugo Pompidou and David Alcock, from SAS Rogue Heroes, as Clement. George Ure directs 2019 Great British Pantomimes Award winner Jon Monie’s script. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
James Swanton: Christmas ghost stories from the pen of Charles Dickens
Storyteller of the week: James Swanton presents Ghost Stories for Christmas, York Medical Society lecture hall, until December 5, 7pm
YORK actor James Swanton returns to York Medical Society to tell Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories for Christmas. “Each of them brims with Dickens’s genius for the weird, which ranges from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms,” he says of his hour-long shows. “Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and in this age of rising austerity and fascism, we’re feeling the bite more than ever,” he says.
December 5’s performance of The Haunted Man has sold out; hurry, hurry to acquire tickets for A Christmas Carol on December 2, 3 or 4. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
R M Lloyd Parry: MR James Project storyteller
More ghosts in York: Nunkie Theatre Company, Count Magnus, Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE ghost stories of M R James amuse and terrify as powerfully today as they did when first written more than a century ago. Nunkie Theatre Company brings two of these spine-chillers to life in R M Lloyd Parry’s thrilling one-man show.
In Count Magnus a travel-writer’s over-inquisitiveness leads to a diabolical chase from darkest Sweden to rural Essex. Denmark is the setting for Number 13, where a hotel room with the famously unlucky number conceals a ghastly, baffling secret. Tickets update: SOLD OUT.
Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre
Children’s show of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Polaris The Snow Bear, The Mount School, York, December 7, 3pm, and on tour in Yorkshire and beyond until January 5 2025
MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of Kate Bramley’s new family Christmas show for Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company. On his journey to find renowned naturalist Mr Hat-In-Burrow, many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as Polaris (Tom Mordell) tries to put everything right, saving the Polar world in time for Christmas with the help of reluctant sidekick Sammy the Seal (Danny Mellor).
Further Yorkshire dates include: tonight, 7pm, Kilham Village Hall; December 1, 7pm, Old Girls’ School, Sherburn in Elmet; December 3, 7pm, Green Hammerton Village Hall; December 11, 7.30pm, Bishop Monkton Village Hall; December 17, 6pm, The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby; December 28, 2pm, Ampleforth Village Hall, and December 30, 4.30pm, East Cottingwith Village Hall. Full details and tickets: badappletheatre.co.uk or 01423 331304.
Gifts of Christmas on display at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre
Christmas exhibition of the week: Gifts Of Christmas, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 19, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; last admission 4pm
BAR Convent is sparkling with a dazzling tree decorations and new exhibition on this year’s festive theme of Gifts of Christmas. On show is a collection of digital art inspired by Viborg, where heritage intersects with cutting-edge technology, while young creatives from Blueberry Academy, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, St George’s RC Primary and York College (ESOL students) are exploring the theme too. Glass cabinets showcase pop-punk tributes to the Book of Kells and the works of William Blake. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.
1812 Theatre Company’s poster for Pinocchio at Helmsley Arts Centre
1812 pantomime for 2024: 1812 Theatre Company in Pinocchio, Helmsley Arts Centre, 2.30pm matinees, December 7, 8, 14 and 15; 7.30pm evening shows, December 7, 10 to 14
HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs 1812 Theatre Company in Tom Whalley’s version of Pinocchio. Geppetto (Oliver Clive), an old toy maker, always longed for a son of his own. One starry night, helped by the Blue Fairy (Nicky Hollins) and a cheeky little Jiminy Cricket (Millie Neighbour), his wish comes true and his latest puppet, Pinocchio (Esme Schofield), comes to life.
However, the magical puppet catches the eye of evil showman Stromboli (Ben Coughlan). Aided by Dame Mamma Mia (Martin Vander Weyer) and her hapless son Lampwick (Joe Gregory) from the pizzeria, will Pinocchio learn in time what it takes to be a “real boy”? Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
One Knight with you: Steve Knight in his Elvis Christmas Special at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
To avoid a Blue Christmas, book now: Elvis Christmas Special, Tribute by Steve Knight, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 22,7.30pm
STEVE Knight embodies the spirit and energy of Elvis Presley as he brings a Christmas flavour to his tribute act that has played Las Vegas to London. Presented by Wryley Music, he combines spot-on vocals with a dynamic stage presence and an uncanny resemblance to the King of Rock’n’Roll. Backed by a full band, he takes a festive journey through Elvis’s greatest hits. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
In Focus: Jo Walton’s exhibition, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York
Jo Walton setting up her exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Behind her is one of her artworks and graffiti artist Sam Porter’s wall painting of an Eastern Bluebird. “The bluebird is beautiful, though some people think it’s a Kingfisher, which is crazy, isn’t it!”
WHEN Rogues Atelier artist, interior designer, upholsterer and Bluebird Bakery curator of exhibitions Jo Walton asked poet Nicky Kippax to put words to images she had sent her, she responded with “The heft of a cliff and a gathering of sea fret”. Spot on, Nicky.
Into the eighth month of recovery from breaking her right leg, Jo is exhibiting predominantly large works that utilise steel, copper, rust, gold, verdigris and wax in Nicky’s bakery, cafe and community centre, in Acomb Road, Acomb, York, whose interior she designed in 2021.
Jo has curated exhibitions in the bakery by Mark Ibson, Rosie Bramley, Liz Foster, Carolyn Coles, Rob Burton and Robin Grover-Jacques, but not shown her own work there until now. Why? “I have my own space [at Rogues Atelier] too, and I’ve also been juggling with the availability of other artists,” she reasons.
Jo’s creative year has been shaped by her leg break. “I was visiting Mark Ibson’s gallery at the old blacksmith’s in Bishop Wilton, when I walked around the back with my daughter and I just fell over. That was at the end of April, just after York Open Studios,” she says.
“I’m only just walking OK now. I’ve still got a slight limp. I had to have a pin put through my ankle, and a plate inserted too, as well splints. Everything in my life came to a complete standstill. All the work and holiday plans stopped, though I did manage to get a couple of paintings done for North Yorkshire Open Studios, going round on my “scooter” to get them completed.”
Earlier in the year, Jo had done an upholstery re-fit upstairs at Ambiente Tapas, in Goodramgate, York, and designed the interior for the new Bluebird Bakery in Butcher Row, Beverley.
For her Acomb exhibition and winter shows at Rogues Atelier, Jo “has been able to work properly at full tilt since September, mainly making smaller pieces”. “But I also had to catch up on so many upholstery orders, delivering what I’d promised but I’d had to put off while I recuperated.
“At Bluebird Bakery, there’ll be big works, all 80cms by 80cms, while all the smaller pieces will be on show at Rogues Atelier, when we do our winter open studios shows along with PICA Studios today [November 30] and tomorrow [10am to 5pm both days], then December 7 [10am to 5pm] and December 8 [11am to 5pm].”
Looking ahead to 2025, Jo will be exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, York, in July after being offered a solo show by owner and curator Terry Brett. The exhibition will combine Jo’s big artworks with ceramic vases and vessels and dried metal arrangements to evoke how all the pieces would complement each other in a home setting.
Prompted by putting Nicky Kippax’s poetry on the walls by her artworks in the past, “I’m planning to incorporate her words in the paintings, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” says Jo. “It was the sort of work that first attracted me as an art college student in Harrogate and then at Bradford University.”
As Neil Young once sang, rust never sleeps, certainly not in Jo Walton’s art.
Jo Walton, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, on show at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until January 23 2025
Jo Walton: back story
Jo Walton, at Rogues Atelier Art Studio, on the get-around “scooter” that enabled her to complete works for her North Yorkshire Open Studios exhibition after breaking her right leg in a fall
GRADUATED from Bradford University with degree in Fine Art in 2005. Founded community arts centre in Walmgate, York, and delivered community art projects at York Art Gallery.
In 2012, she founded Rogues Atelier Art Studio in Fossgate, York, where she creates abstract land/sea/colour-scapes focusing on horizons, using gold, silver, copper, metal leaf, oil paint and wax, playing with oxidation – rust, verdigris – on plastered wooden panels.
Her work is inspired by extensive travel, sailing in her twenties and delivering yachts, preceded by her childhood years living in Australia.
Jo participates regularly in York Open Studios, Staithes Art and Heritage Festival, Saltaire Open Village and, more recently, in North Yorkshire Open Studios. She has held solo exhibitions at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, and has been commissioned to curate exhibitions there.
Jo is known for her industrial-styled commercial interiors, designing for bars and shops. She designed and project-managed The Angel On The Green, Bishopthorpe Road, and Bluebird Bakery, in Acomb Road, Acomb, Shambles Market, York, Kirkgate Market, Leeds, and Butcher Row, Beverley.
A note on rust in Jo Walton’s work
Jo Walton’s artwork on show at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
THE method to preserve and prevent further rusting of the metal plate has been researched, tried and tested by Jo for more than 12 years, to the point where she is certain of its durability. The first successful pieces are in her home, where she reports no change.
“I’ve been fascinated by rust forever,” she says. “Growing up in Australia with the red dust and the searing heat burning everything, I was fascinated by rusted metals and especially by the colours they gave off: those absolutely beautiful colours.
“Then I got rust spots on my jeans that wouldn’t come out. I thought, ‘there might be something in this’, so I looked at printing with rust, which took a while to work out. People liked them, and once I began printing onto metal plate, people loved them – especially men.
“What I’m playing with in my works is the shine of the gold through the matt of the paint. I’m using oil paints, whereas the classic iconic art used egg tempera. It’s painted on to gold metal leaf, so it’s textured, painted black and then polished.
“When I went to Bradford University, my first instinct was to paint almost in the iconic style, but it was the time of Tracey Emin and the Young British Artists, which was a sad time to go to university to study Fine Art if you wanted to do traditional techniques, like I did!
“They were all into modern art, but if I’d stuck to my feelings about the traditions of art, I would never have done the rust works!”
Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre
MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of a new family Christmas show by Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company that opens tonight.
Polaris is on the longest journey of his life: to find the great Mr. Hat-In-Burrow, a renowned human naturalist who – legend says – has the key to saving the Polar world.
When he arrives unexpectedly by iceberg in a small village in the North of England, Polaris does not receive the warm welcome he expected! Many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as he tries to put everything right in time for Christmas with the help of his reluctant sidekick, Sammy the Seal.
Tom Mordell
Written and directed by Badapple director Kate Bramley, this festive tall tale for all ages five upwards, as well as the young at heart, will tour to small village halls throughout Yorkshire and then nationwide from November 29 to January 5 2025 with a cast of Tom Mordell as Polaris (and other roles) and company favourite Danny Mellor as Sammy the Seal (and other roles too). Jez Lowe’s songs and Catherine Dawn’s design completes the snow-dusted picture.
For the past 26 years, Badapple have performed original shows in the smallest and hardest-to-reach rural venues nationwide, bringing theatre and music “to your doorstep”.
“From the North Yorkshire team that delivered The Mice Who Ate Christmas, The Elves And The Carpenter and The Snow Dancer, expect a classic Badapple family show with the usual comedy, puppets, songs, mayhem and a touch of snowy wonder!” says Kate. “It’s perfect for grandparents and grandchildren to enjoy together as Polaris and sidekick Sammy seek to save the Polar world – and Christmas itself.”
Danny Mellor
The tour will take in 26 venues, as far afield as Lancashire, Cumbria, County Durham, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Herefordshire and Shropshire, as well as North, East and South Yorkshire.. All venue and ticket details can be found at: https://www.badappletheatre.co.uk/show/polaris-the-snow-bear/ or by telephoning 01423 331304.
Yorkshire dates include:
November 29, 7pm: Tockwith Village Hall, box office, 01423 331304.
November 30, 7pm: Kilham Village Hall, 07354 301119.
December 1, 7pm: Old Girls’ School, Sherburn in Elmet, 01977 685178.
December 3, 7pm: Green Hammerton Village Hall, 01423 331304.
December 7, 3pm: The Mount School, York, 01423 331304/badappletheatre.co.uk.
Badapple’s tour poster for Polaris The Snow Bear
December 11, 7.30pm: Bishop Monkton Village Hall, 01423 331304.
December 17, 6pm: The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby, 01347 889898.
December 28, 2pm: Ampleforth Village Hall, 07549 775971.
December 30, 4.30pm: East Cottingwith Village Hall, 07866 024009.
Did you know? Badapple’s travels in 2024 with The Regalettes
EARLIER this year, Badapple Theatre Company mounted spring and autumn tours of director Kate Bramley’s 1930s’-inspired comedy The Regalettes, the first from April 24 to June 7 with a Yorkshire cast of Ellie Pawsey and Rhiannon Canoville-Ord; the second from September 26 to November 17 with Pip Cook and fellow York actress Nell Baker plus ‘cinema’ visuals and new twists.
In The Regalettes, Celebrity and rural life clash head on when a new movie premières at the tiny Regal cinema in the fictional Yorkshire village of Bottledale in Bramley’s play set in the 1930s, the cinema decade that spans Hitchcock noir and classic Technicolor showstoppers.
Ellie Pawsey’s The Falcon in Badapple’s The Regalettes. Picture: Karl Andre
Comedy and intrigue ensue as the intrepid heroines Hilda and Annie suddenly find themselves at the heart of a very silly mystery. Cue film sequences, music, songs and clowning in Bramley’s story that looks at the contrast for young women between isolated village life and the perceived glamour of the movies.
Bramley revealed how the idea for the play came about. “I’m a big film noir fan; it’s so stylish and elegant, and so well written – and the 1930s was a huge boom time for Hollywood and famous UK film makers as well.”
Rhiannon Canoville-Ord as Mademoiselle Escargot in The Regalettes. Picture: Karl Andre
Away from Hollywood, the decade was far from magical for many, with the Great Depression taking hold. “For ordinary working people, the 1930s was a time of increasing financial hardship which seemed a world away from the glamour of a movie set,” Kate noted.
“I suppose I thought there were some parallels to our modern-day experiences, but as ever it’s a comedy, and we just had a lot of fun piecing together a ‘what if’ mini-mystery that turns normal rural life upside down for our heroines.”
Nell Baker
The first tour set off in the wake of Badapple securing £28,381 grant funding from Arts Council England and £800 from East Riding Council. “Badapple is immensely grateful for this generous funding, which enables ours original brand of live theatre to reach rural locations across the country,” said Kate.
Later explaining how the 18-date second tour differed from the first, she said: “Bringing in a new cast has given the whole show a new lease of life. I have re-written some of the show and, alongside our new assistant director Connie Peel, we added some new visual twists and turns to the narrative, as well as our production team augmenting the overall design and style. We are always refining and creating and looking to make every tour be the best it can be.”
Isobel Staton’s Mary in rehearsal for York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders
YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s new and unique interpretation of the Nativity, dramatising events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, opens at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, tonight.
Directed once more by Paul Toy, the hour-long touring community production is set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.
Likewise, this production is on the move, following up today and tomorrow’s Poppleton performances with visits to St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, on December 5 and 6, then St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, on December 7.
Toy’s vision for his staging is “that of an underground, secret activity; clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression”.
Manuda Fernando (Herod’s son), left, Wilma Edwards (Counsellor), James Tyler (Herod) and Tricia Campbell (Counsellor) in the rehearsal room. Picture: John Saunders
Bringing the Christmas story of events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ to York neighbourhoods, Toy’s production recalls a time in the 17th century when the Mystery Plays were banned for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.
Paul says: “Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter with their new-born child, being forced to flee to another country, leaving behind scenes of unimaginable horror. While it mirrors both history and our current world situation, there is news of great hope and joy.”
Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry adds: “The trust is delighted to be touring the production around three of York’s suburbs. Our aim is to give people the chance to see a performance from one of York’s great cultural traditions on their doorstep. The hour-long performance of words and music promises to both challenge and delight the audience.”
Traditionally, The Nativity performances celebrate the birth of Jesus into the life of humankind. “Beloved when performed by young children, this story is not a simple tale of unmitigated joy,” says Paul. “It is a cold, cruel world that the baby arrives in. People are subjugated by an occupying power, and some are doomed to pay a price of unimaginable suffering. But the birth also gives optimism and the hope of a better future.
Nick Jones’s Joseph rehearsing a scene for A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders
“In our production, we re-create the experiences of those who aimed to keep the story of the Mystery Plays alive at a time when they were banned because their Catholic content was unacceptable to Protestant rulers.
“A band of actors from Egton on the North York Moors kept the flame burning with secret performances in the houses of Catholic landowners – one step ahead of the authorities. Now, join us for an hour when we bring to life that team of fear, of punishment, of homelessness, but also a time of great hope and joy.”
York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, November 29, 7.30pm, and November 30, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Suitable for adults and children aged 11 plus. Box office: 0333 666 3366 or https://ympst.co.uk/nativityticketsand on the door (cash or card), subject to availability.
York Mystery Plays: back story
WRITTEN in medieval times, 48 plays, once performed in the streets by the city’s Guilds, tell the Biblical story from Creation to Judgement Day, including the life of Jesus Christ.
York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is a registered charity, a group of volunteers aiming to keep the story of the York Mystery Plays alive.
Who is in the cast?
The Shepherds, David Denbigh, left, Michael Maybridge and Sally Maybridge in rehearsal for A Nativity for York
Balladeer/Minstrel: Jonathan Brockbank Symeon/Soldier I: David Lancaster Anna/Counsellor II: Clare Halliday The Angel Gabriel: Helen Jarvis Mary: Isobel Staton Elizabeth/Counsellor I: Wilma Edwards Joseph: Nick Jones Neighbour II/Maidservant/Angel: Trisha Campbell King I/Neighbour I: Val Burgess King II/Mother I: Emily Hansen King III: Madusha Fernando/Janice Newton Shepherd I: Michael Maybridge Shepherd II/Mother II: Sally Maybridge Shepherd III/Soldier II: David Denbigh Herod: James Tyler Filius/Herod’s Son: Manuda Fernando Messenger: Oliver Howard Star Angel: Julie Speedie Angel Choir: Emily Hansen, Trisha Campbell, Val Burgess, Wilma Edwards and Julie Speedie
THE 24 has grown. When first taken over by Robert Hollingworth, it was largely a choir of graduate students. It has since been amalgamated with the university’s chamber choir and grown to its present 33 members, a size that arguably takes it beyond the usual ‘chamber’ dimensions.
It appeared here with strong support from Ampleforth College Chamber Choir and Huntington School Secret Choir. The menu, served to a full house, was a nourishing pot-pourri ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, all a cappella.
Johann Christoph Bach belonged to the generation before JSB and is widely considered to be the great man’s most talented forebear. The double choir motet Lieber Herr Gott, dating from 1672, has a continuo part but was given here unaccompanied.
Its opening phrase says “wecken uns auf” (wake us up), an apt injunction given that the start was something of a scramble. But it settled into a comfortable stride after its central tempo-change.
In contrast, Alonso Lobo’s penitent motet Versa In Luctum (Turned To Mourning) was much more shapely. For Alma Redemptoris Mater, by his Spanish compatriot and almost exact contemporary Victoria, the school choirs joined the fray, bringing the total to more than 70 voices. Yet the blend was excellent and Hollingworth had the singers in the palm of his hand.
In two madrigals by Thomas Tomkins, we heard the 11 members of the UK’s only MA course in solo-voice ensemble singing, a vivid sextet in Oft Did I Marle (marvel) and a gorgeously mournful quintet in Too Much I Once Lamented.
Either side of the interval, The 24 was back at full strength. It revelled in the lush harmonies of three of Schumann’s double-choir songs, Op 141. The last two had elements of prayer, both ending with ‘Amen’ cadences, but the last – a setting of Goethe’s Talismane – was much the most effective, delivered crisply but with a tender final plea.
There was exciting propulsion in Gibbons’s O Clap Your Hands and transparency in Tavener’s Hymn To The Mother Of God. Less telling were motets by Kenneth Leighton and Joanna Marsh, although the latter – a setting of Julian of Norwich’s All Shall Be Well – had a welcome sense of triumphal love at its close.
In this exalted company it came as a surprise to hear the calmly confident account of Stanford’s Justorum Animae (The Souls Of The Righteous) delivered by the Ampleforth choir under Roger Muttitt, with ‘non tanget illos’ – the torment of death ‘shall not touch them’ – given special emphasis and the peaceful ending beautifully floated.
With the combined forces reassembled, Elgar’s orchestral Go, Song Of Mine was never going to emerge with much clarity, although its ending was forceful enough. Will(iam) Campbell’s take on Vaughan Williams’s much-loved hymn-tune to Come Down, O Love Divine, however, was lovingly handled, starting out in left field and gradually moving towards more traditional harmonies, as the tune gained shape: a variation in reverse. It made an amusing end to a thoroughly invigorating evening.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy the elf and Steve Tearle’s Santa in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
STEVE Tearle knows how to sell a show, this time promising audiences “an opportunity to see Elf like never before with a fantastic video wall and lots of amazing special effects”.
The result? A sold-out run of six performances at the JoRo, where your reviewer was accommodated at the last minute in the only remaining house seat. Thank you, JoRo management, for being so helpful.
Elf The Musical was last staged in York in the equivalent week three years ago by York Stage at the Grand Opera House, where director-designer Nik Briggs dressed his stage with big snowflakes, open North Pole skyline, bustling Macy’s store, finale snow machine et al, as he drew inspiration from Radio City Music Hall.
Tearle instead put his trust in technology and human/elf chemistry, utilising video backdrops of constantly changing snowscapes, spinning festive candy canes and the interiors of Macy’s Department Store and Greenway Press, a children’s book publishing company in New York City’s Empire State Building, first seen in all its towering, vertigo-inducing magnificence.
Family discussions in the Hobbs household: Perri Ann Barley’s Emily, James O’Neill’s Walter and James Roberts’s Michael
It would spoil the visual delights in store to mention more than that, but Tearle uses the tools with a showman’s flourish, tapping into his inner PT Barnum that never lies far beneath the surface.
But is it really theatre, you ask? Is it in some way cheating to let the science, rather than the art, do the work? Not today when theatre embraces all possibilities to modernise the artform while sustaining the magic.
What’s more, everything else about Tearle’s community theatre-making is rooted in old-fashioned theatre values: a glossy programme, a big cast, with children aplenty cutting their teeth; 15 players, yes, 15, in Joe Allen’s orchestra; costumes galore, and Tearle himself in actor-manager mode, overseeing his production in the genial guise of storyteller Santa. Scatting extra lines like a jazz singer, he gives resurgent York City an unexpected mention far from the North Pole.
He is not the santa of attention, however! That central figure is Finlay Butler’s skateboarding Buddy, with Butler’s enthusiasm for playing Buddy – “one of the greatest experiences of my life!” he says – being a match for Buddy’s ebullience for life.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy enthuses in his unconventional way over Maia Stroud’s Jovie in Elf The Musical
Elf The Musical retains the jokes and the naïve charm of the 2003 Will Ferrell film in its playful, New York-witty, even wise book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, then adds all the song-and-dance razzmatazz of a Broadway musical, with music by Matthew Sklar big on winter brass and lyrics by Chad Beguelin full of smart humour, bold statements and big sentiments.
Tearle’s green-coated Santa introduces the story of how orphan boy Buddy crawls into Santa’s sack and ends up being brought up among all the elf toy makers on a sugar-rich diet with two visits a day to the North Pole dentist.
When Buddy learns that he is not an elf after all, despite being so elfish in his thinking, off to New York he must go – in Tearle’s video variation of a pantomime transformation scene – to try to find his real father, children’s publishing-house manager Walter Hobbs (James O’Neill), who never knew he had a son from a long-ago relationship.
Stressed-out Walter is now married to long-suffering Emily (Perri Ann Barley), with a son, Michael (James Roberts, sharing the role with Zachary Stoney). In their house, no-one believes in Santa but Buddy will work his way into their lives – work, not worm – with his idiot-savant gentle air, kindness and positivity.
The hills are alive with candy canes as Finlay Butler’s Buddy makes his journey from the North Pole to New York via NE Theatre York’s video projections
Butler’s performance is as buoyant as a bubble, as bouncy as Tigger, as cheerful as a robin’s hop on a Christmas card. Who could not love him, this bundle of joy, love, cheek and unguarded desire to please? After Adam Sowter’s Mr Poppy in Pick Up Theatre’s ongoing Nativity! The Musical at the Grand Opera House, here is another agile comedic actor who would be wholly suited to turning his hand to daft-lad duty in panto. He sings expressively too, especially in World’s Greatest Dad and The Story Of Buddy The Elf.
Barley’s warm-hearted Emily and Roberts’s excitable Michael have two lovely duets, I’ll Believe In You and There Is A Santa Claus, while O’Neill impresses in his transformative role, gradually defrosting from treasonable to reasonable.
Ali-Butler-Hind’s scatty receptionist Deb and Kit Stroud’s hyperactive Manager maximise their cameos, topped by Stephen Perry’s intemperate publishing boss Mr Greenway with his preposterous suggestions for book changes.
Maia Beatrice, or Maia Stroud as she is now called in the programme, is well cast as Macy’s store worker Jovie, Buddy’s slow-burn love interest, whose initial New York cynicism is chipped away by his persistent enthusiasm as he corrects everyone’s misconceptions over Santa, the North Pole and Christmas.
It’ll be all white on the night (apart from the Santas!) in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
A rising talent of the York stage with a cracking singing voice, full of emotion and range, and a sense of stillness in the moment not always present in an actor’s skill set, her performance has depth, standing out amid the amusing caricatures. No song is better sung than her Never Fall In Love.
Joe Allen’s well-drilled orchestra brings out the fizz and the fun in Sklar’s emotive songs, and if the dancing is less precise, it has all the sugar-rush energy of Buddy in Melissa Boyd’s choreography. Her best routine is for the Santa setpiece Nobody Cares About Santa, where the jaded, boozed-up post-shift Santas leap up and down in turn, topped off by a burst of tap-dancing.
Tearle has decked the stage front with twinkling foliage: a typical touch from NETheatre’s creative director with a designer’s flair who embraces the “true joy of Christmas” as heartily as Buddy and his one-man national elf service.
His stage bursts with colour and life, regulation reds and greens aplenty and one scene where everyone is dressed in white. What a spectacle. Buddy has a word for it: Sparklejollytwinklejingley.
NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. SOLD OUT. Tickets update: for returns only, ring 01904 501935.
THIS excellent York Concerts series continued with a really attractive programme of Mendelssohn, Busoni and Richard Strauss.
It opened with Mel Bonis’s Le Songe de Cléopâtre, op. 180. To be honest, the only thing I knew about the composer was that her actual name was Mélanie, publishing her works under the gender-neutral name of Mel Bonis in an attempt to avoid the inevitable prejudice against women composers.
But the performance of this wonderful crafted miniature clearly revealed a composer of real stature and individuality. As the title implies, the work is inspired by the influential Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. And there did seem to be a programmatic element, a response to the strong, seductive qualities associated with this historic femme fatale.
I could clearly hear the impressionistic influence of Debussy, although the rich orchestral swells suggested the music of Wagner. Maybe. The string tuning was not always on the money (the auditorium was pretty warm), but lovely flute and clarinet playing stood out and the overall performance convinced.
Taking centre stage for Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in G minor, op. 25 was third-year university music student Alexa MacLaren. Not surprisingly, there were some early signs of nerves but the introduction was nevertheless simply exhilarating.
I loved the overall charm of the playing, the sparkling passagework dispensing with the unnecessary dramatic showmanship. Attention to detail was ever present. The playful nature of the Presto finale was instinctively captured by Ms MacLaren, as in the rhythmically crisp articulation – far from easy at this very lively tempo and sparkling scale passages.
But it was the lyrical passages, the singing melodies, particularly in the tonally radiant E major Andante, which stayed with me. The phrasing, expression and avoidance of sentimentality worked beautifully. The rapturous response from the capacity audience was genuinely touching.
Ferruccio Busoni is a towering figure in ‘modern’ music. His music breathes the contrapuntal sound world of J S Bach – the great Fantasia Contrappuntistica on an unfinished fugue by Bach is a remarkable homage to the great man, just as much as it breathes the “air from another planet”.
Busoni was a friend of Arnold Schoenberg. He also had a close relationship, both personally and professionally, with Gustav Mahler. And it was Mahler and the New York Philharmonic who gave the first performance of Busoni’s short Berceuse élégiaque for orchestra, op.42 in 1911.
The Berceuse is an atmospheric, contemplative work and John Stringer’s insightful reading allowed it the space to gradually unfold. I was struck by the subtlety of the instrumental timbres and gently jarring (major and minor) tonalities and harmonic patterns.
The performance created a dream-like world, drifting through a quite unique musical landscape. The dark, elegiac intimacy surely was a response to the death of his mother. Indeed, the score itself is headed by the enigmatic words “A man’s cradle-song at his mother’s bier”. A bier is the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed (I had to look this one up).
A slight whinge before turning to the Strauss: the slightly surreal amplified call to refrain from taking photos is a good thing, but then having a photographer taking shots from the rear of the auditorium with a camera the size of a mini Hubble telescope ain’t – it’s distracting.
So, from one master of atmospheric orchestration and colour to another, Richard Strauss’s tone poem Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration). The musical narrative depicts the death of an artist.
As the man lies on his death bed, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his earthly goals and finally the mother of all transfigurations “from the infinite reaches of heaven”. A bit like Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius composed 11 years later – both 19th-century Europeans and Victorians were obsessed with death and mysticism.
The work opens with quiet pulsing strings and timpani suggesting life, the living, but its irregularity of beat suggests a slowly failing heartbeat and the imminence of death. John Stringer’s orchestral instincts were well served here, generating a quiet, unsettling musical moment of unwanted familiarity. There were telling flute, oboe and string contributions.
The second movement was absorbing, with the heartbeat theme threading the musical narrative together, culminating in a brilliant full orchestral manifestation with the brass (trumpets and trombones) articulating a new idea. The ending was quiet and bleak.
I found the third movement really engaging as the dying man’s life is played out: aims, aspirations and failure to achieve them. The performance became appropriately agitated, tormented and explosive.
The moment of death and transfiguration was effectively evoked; a climax of dramatic glissando strings followed to an eerie, unearthly quiet gong calls and a low sustained C in the bowels of the orchestra itself.
The transfiguration begins with the whole orchestra pianissimo, fine horn and (celestial, what else?) harp playing leading to the “true and ultimate heavenly paradise”.
Another really fine outing for the University Symphony Orchestra, admirably directed once again by John Stringer. On a personal note, I hope to see the day when Mr Stringer decides to include some of his own impressive compositions into these programmes.
But the final word belongs with final-year student Alexa MacLaren; an exceptional young pianist at the start of a clearly promising career. We wish her well.
