What can I say? You can enjoy yourself and yet exhaust yourself at the same time as many singers had found. Promoting the Nidus Childrens' Choir CD actually forced me to cancel and important rehearsal and that was very hard to do. Yet it was exhilirating to work in the Cardiff Millennium Centre singing 'O Holy Night' which was very successful and brought enthusisatic applause. Since I left WNO for work abroad, they have moved here and it has become their permanent home, with wonderful facilitites, far better than those at John Street and the New Theatre. This followed more concerts in North Monmouthshire for 'Help The Heroes', where I sang an Old favourite 'MY HERO' from The Chocolate Soldier by Oskar Strauss, which itself, I understand was an opera made from George Bernard Shaw's 'Arms and the Man'.This was followed by an appearance at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran, which I was thrilled to discover had repaired their relay to the dressing rooms. This was great because it made it less of an interesting experiment in people coming up, banging on the door and saying 'You're on!' and arriving there at a rate of knots!
Following this performance was a whirlwind flight to Germany for four days and then a return for Christmas at home. My sister had arrived from France with her family, and my husband, son and myself were able to relax afterwards. The hardest thing in all the furore before Christmas were the ups and downs, and trying to finish teaching committments, the many extra promotional events and WEDDING work!
Also UPLOADED my new album 'Inspiration' for sale on iTunes and CD Baby. It is just called 'Inspiration' Evelyn Nicholson but contains much of the music I sing at Weddings, excluding 'O Perfect Love' because it needs more work. I was also pleased (see my website,) to see O Holy Night had been uploaded by the fabulous RICHARDSON FILMS to You Tube, to promote the track, which I have been allowed to add to 'Inspiration' as well.
Getting back to work and going for coaching imminently on work for my recital on 16 January and a lot of memorising to do and also to do the galas!
On the 1st December, I sang in the Tenovus concert at St Woolos Cathedral, Newport. The College were still in mourning over the death of Jeremy Winston, who was a Canon and tthe former vicar of Abergavenny. His sudden death, meant that his overseeing of the new lighting for the Cathedral was delayed and the concert had to be held under emergency lights. Sad that the cathedral was full of electricians when we arrivved and that the Lovelight candles when lit, made so little impression as the lights could not be dimmed.
Nevertheless the concert itself took place in the impressive surroundings and The City of Newport Male choir began conducted by Frank Jones, in some popular Welsh hymns, which went down well with the audience. The Mayor of Torfaen was there, but actually, considering the forces giving the concert, the cathedral was not full, which was a shame.
The Nidus Childrens Choir were next with a lively and spirited Hail Holy Queen, and The Rose, which was very moving. They finished with Rutter's ever popular 'Star Carol', their true voices echoing around the cathedral. The Charity then talked about remembering loved ones who had died of cancer and the Lovelight Candles were lit, with the choir singing 'Silent Night' and a wonderful contribution from Elizabeth Pike, who sang the solo in Balulalow by Britten. Several stunning voices joined her, Hannah Tottle, Bethany Young, Hannah Gunter,Megan Thomas, Aine Smith, Rhianwen Hallows and Catrin Williams. The result was magnificently pure and in tune.
The baritone Christian Jenkins sang next. He is a talented second year student at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He sang ' The Three Kings' by Peter Cornelius i(from the 'Weihnachtslieder'.) His rich and clear legato line, and musical phrasing were very evident, as well as a charismatic presence.
The City of Newport then sang some seasonal carols, especially the Huron Carol, a favourite of mine, with excellent tone, which delighted the audience and then followed 'Music of the Night' sung by Nicholas Dunbar, star of the West End and Hamburg. His singing brought shivers to the spine and certainly showed his excellent baritone voice and vibrations, bringing forth a superb falsetto top Ab. The audience were absolutely stunned at hearing such a musical performance, with a lovely legato and phrasing.
The Nidus Choir followed with Still Still Still, the Austrian Carol, Silver Bells, with solos by Wil Smith, Morgan Thomas and Dan Williams, and a very livvely Winter Wonderland. The harmony was beautiful.
I then sang, the Hungarian Czardas from the Fledermaus, 'Klange der Heimat' a lively, entertaining and difficult piece which has been something of a 'party piece' for me. Following this, I was joined by Ian Jenkins ,( Tenor), Nick Dunbar ,( Baritone) and Christian Jenkins (Baritone) in a performance of 'La Vergine degli Angeli' from Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino' which the audience seemed to really enjoy. This was followed by O Holy Night by Adophe Adam, again, well received and after that, the choirs and soloists all joined together for White Christmas.
The performers were all very glad to have a standing ovation at the end, similar to that enjoyed at the Madeleine Church in Paris! It was a lovely evening and I have already been approached for next year. Whew! I had bought a big box of sweeties which were given out to all the children. It seemed many people kindly bought the CD as well. It turned out to be a great evening!
Live recording in Hall! Not edited.
A wonderful turnout for the Gala Concert at Westminster Cathedral Hall, in Ambrosden Avenue, Victoria, London! It was such a privilige to be in a concert with so many talented people, and above all to meet two old friends again, David Hoyland, the accompanist, who played fabulously for everyone and the lovely Elizabeth Collier, who sang her aria from Princess Ida 'Minerva' superbly, in glowing and lustrous voice,( if disappointingly lit by wrongly positioned lights) .She was singing better than ever! Just shows that the National Opera Studio produces artists of lasting quality. I was very proud! Pity she didn't sing one more.....
The Ed Begley Quartet, stylish and in excellent jazz style, produced professional jazz at its best, especially in their tender account of the song 'Georgia'. I could have listened to them all evening. Don Maclean had people rolling in the aisles with his stand up comedy, and was superbly succeeded by Jim Bannan and Patrick Lee who each had their individual style and yet produced very funny material. I especially liked the joke about the goldfish!Vocalists, Jimena Larraguivel and New Zealander Gemma Cocker sang “Let It Be” , singing beautifully and dressed enchantingly in white floating style dresses to great applause and Dympna Le Rasle, Jimena, Martin Brown, Lisa Doran, Gemma Prue Gillett, Patrick Lee and Alastair Kelly all joined in a sort of music hall act to provide a rousing end to the evenings proceedings, which raised well over a thousand pounds for Cafod charity!! Wonderful!
I sang 'Vissi d'Arte' from Tosca and the Czardas from 'Fledermaus'. wearing my new sapphire blue evening gown, which is the first new gown I have ordered for a while and it looked lovely under the lights, which had been correctly placed by the time I arrived on stage! Singing in the dark would have been disappointing! I was so pleased to get a tremendous response from the audience and was so happy to be so well received! Every artist needs support from time to time, and this was a lovely evening for this, and so many compliments! Have to make the most of it! The audience were very supportive of all of us!
Very humbling was seeing a slide show of some of the past members of the Catholic Association of Performing Arts. Sir Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries,AlecGuiness, FrankFinlay, LionelJeffriesIan Bannen, Moira Lister, Valerie Masterson, Eamon Andrews, amongst a large distinguished band. I remembered singing at the Memorial Mass for Patricia Hayes at Westminster Cathedral. We also got the tremendous news that Julian Fellowes (ex Ampleforth) has accepted the invitation to become Vice President of the Society and will attend the centenary dinner. He has just won some Emmies and Awards for his series 'Downton Abbey' on TV. Our much loved late Chairman, Michael Williams was also remembered on this evening, and Norman Hoskins paid tribute to him by impersonating Michael in one of his favourite sketches 'The Day the War Broke Out' . Boards had been put up with photos of members, and champagne and refreshments in a long interval, when the jazz was played again. Hope they have a CD! Having crammed my 'big' dress into its bag, it was hard to get out the door. So many people from the opera world there, but finally it was back to the car, with my lovely husband turning up at the stage door to whisk me the 100 miles back to Gloucestershire. Working with David is always such a pleasure, and seeing old friends, not only Liz Collier, but Michael Slater , Robin Marshall, Charlotte Williams, and of course Father Vlad (!) was the icing on the cake! Better still was meeting new friends, who introduced themselves to me!
I have recently been involved as vocal consultant of the Nidus Children's choir of Cwmbran, who won third prize at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in 2010, a big achievement for a choir who has only been in existence for four years. In addition they also took part in the Bryn Terfel Christmas Special on S4C Television. I agreed to sing a number with them and the Nidus Chorale on a special Christmas CD to be launched in September and so 'O Holy Night' was born, in a dramatic glorious way as befits a dramatic glorious event. I sang this at a number of Christmas Concerts and it has been so successful that a professional video will also be made. Many people are puzzled that I am not singing in opera at the moment, and have urged me to return to the stage, not easy since I lost my agent through no fault of my own, and was unable to get another. I sang a lot in Germany following an audition tour, but not having an agent is a really big thing.
At the same time, I went to see my student Wiliam Smith perform in Amahl and the Night Visitors by Menotti at a venue in Abergavenny, Our Lady and St Michael's Church. I was thrilled to discover it was sung by professional singers, Josephine Williamson, Mezzo Soprano, William Mackie (Bass)Henry Newman (Baritone) with whom I had worked in Zauberflote at Opera North. All conducted by Ian Bolton, and the singing and acting of a high standard. It was lovely to see them again. They had performed this at Monmouth, Usk and Abergavenny under the name 'Three Castles Opera'. At the end, I went to say hello and ,in fact, they asked me to join them. I have had several meetings with Jo recently and with Ian and he is very enthusiastic about Opera Galas. Ian is a former member of the Orchestra at Welsh National Opera. A long term aim is to perform some performances of Don Giovanni in some of the South Wales Theatres.
I am still very actively singing in Oratorio and opera concerts, celebrity concerts and recitals.
I am thrilled at this-all the time I have sung Elviras, and covered two performances as Donna Anna, and never have the leading ladies allowed me to sing it as they were never ill! however, it is opera that has been my passion throughout my life since I graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music and Drama. We will see how it all pans out at the meeting next week.....I have to sing at a wedding this weekend in London.
Opera is about the sheer joy of singing, and it may never pay, but such opportunities are wonderful for those who really have all the training, professionalism and experience, when companies employ younger and younger singers.
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