This place is my new favourite theatre. On arrival there were masses of lavish cakes on display reminding me instantly of the excesses of Salieri in “Amadeus”, 1984 – fortunately without the poison unless sugar is seen like that these days. Also on offer was delicious tea.
The Song Company is comprised of highly qualified singers with impressive CVs. The singers we were treated to listen to include: Susannah Lawergren – Soprano; Owen Elsley – Tenor; Mark Donnelly – Baritone; Andrew O’Connor – Bass and Jessica O’Donoghue –Mezzo-Soprano. The program was comprised of pieces by: Giaches de Wert (1535 -1596); Anders Edenroth (b.1963); Giaches de Wert; Heinrich Schütz (1585 -1672); Claudio Monteverdi (1567 -1643); John Cage (1912 -1992) Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (1566 -1613, We were told he killed his wife after finding her with another man and was subsequently tormented forevermore.) and Gordon Hamilton (b.1982). Artistic Director – Anthony Pitts had given the singers free reign to choose to sing the songs they loved to sing.
The performers took turns in giving explanations about the pieces of music, which was informative and enhanced the enjoyment for the audience. For instance, a madrigal is a secular song for two to eight vocalists. Complexity of sound was achieved by five unique voices and the way they could hold their notes to make beautiful chords was astounding. In fact, the music was heavenly secular, soothing, calming, relaxing and like anaesthetic antidote for the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.
One of the singers told us of how influential these madrigals had been for Baroque music, which arose soon after. We were even given an Italian lesson. Five important words to know are: tear – lacrima; earth – terra; tomb – tomba; sky – cielo; & breast – petto. The sustained sung chords crossed over seamlessly into amusing contemporary works. Initialise by Gordon Hamilton, was hilarious being made up of hundreds of acronyms such as DIY, FBI, IOU, PVC, GST, XPT and so on. The dress and the posture of the group were immaculate. The engagement they achieved through eye contact and smiles indicated they could feel our joy.
Beautiful pauses and then an extraordinary ending left us satisfied and yet ready for more.
As a first-timer to such an event, I look forward to my next chance to see such inspiring and stimulating music. My ‘bff,’ Kent Steedman (founder and lead guitarist of The Celibate Rifles) enjoyed the recital just as much as me as he was en route to the recording studio. To find out more about The Song Company go to www.song.company
David Manuell, Theatre Now
Editor’s note: The wonderful sketch was drawn by our guest reviewer, David Manuell during the performance. We hope he will cover some future shows for us
