The Shipston Proms Music Festival was proud to put on ‘A Night at the Opera’ at St Edmunds Church, Shipston-on-Stour. It featured Shipston’s own Opera singers, Soprano Anna Patalong and Baritone Benedict Nelson who sang a range of songs both operatic as well as seasonal Christmas based songs. They were supported on piano by Lynn Arnold.
Anna has garnered critical acclaim from UK, Europe and New Zealand audiences and is also the CEO of the British Youth Opera and a co-founder of the charity SWAP’ra (Supporting Women & Parents in Opera).
Benedict who has also sung to wide acclaim around the world, was an inaugural Harewood Artist with English Nation Opera. He only just made the performance as his flight was delayed getting home (from storm Darragh) from a performance, the previous night, at the Musiktheatre-im-Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
The concert was introduced by Tim Porter with Anna, Benedict & Lynn taking to the stage.
The first half was made up of individual pieces sung by either Anna or Benedict separately or as a duet including ‘Nacht und Trame’ by Schubert, ‘Panis Angelicus’ by Franck and ‘Mary’s Lullaby’ by Rutter.
The pieces from Operas included ‘Mimi…Speravo di Trovarvi Qui’ from La Boheme by Puccini, ‘Bei Mannern’ from The Magic Flute by Mozart and ‘Mesicku na Nebi Hlubokem’ from Rusalka by Dvorak.
The first half finished with a duet of ‘Evening Prayer’ from Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck. The audience had been enchanted with the two powerful and atmospheric operatic voices which filled the church on a cold and stormy night.
After a break for the audience to refill their glasses and buy some mince pies, the performers returned to bring some traditional carols as well some Christmas songs written in the USA. These included ‘Mache Dich’ from The Matthew Passion by Bach, ‘Lulajze Jesu’ a traditional Polish carol and a duet for ‘Still Still Still’ a traditional Austrian carol.
The next section included well known Christmas songs written in the USA including ‘Santa Baby’ by Javits & Springer (originally written for Eartha Kitt) and ‘White Christmas’ by Irving Berlin.
The final section included ‘Somewhere in my Memory’ by John Williams and an operatic version of ‘Fairytale of New York’ by Irish band The Pogues, which was played at Anna’s brother’s wedding for their first dance.
The Closing song was ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ by Hugh Martin sung as a duet to conclude the excellent evening.
The 2025 Shipston Proms Music Festival will take place between June 14th to 28th 2025.
