Orchestra of Opera North

Viennese Whirl

Leeds Town Hall

Thursday, December 31, 2015

WHAT a splendid way to start this New Year's Eve celebration! A glass of bubbly was included in the ticket price and served in the ornate vestibule of Leeds Town Hall prior to the concert. On stage, the Orchestra of Opera North awaited the arrival on the podium of maestro John Rigby to conduct a selection of orchestral lollipops and operetta gems to be sung by award winning soprano Jennifer France. This exciting young singer recently captivated Opera North audiences as Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.

The concert opened with the tuneful Overture to A Night in Venice, one of Johann Stauss's less familiar operettas. Rigby captured the pulse of the music with brisk tempi but he allowed space for some eloquent string and woodwind phrasing of the big Waltz theme. Jennifer France, in a magnificent Autumnal coloured ball gown, swept to the front of the stage. She infused Adele's Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus with a delicious sense of fun as the perky chambermaid who poses as an aristocratic lady. The purity and agility of France's voice was spectacularly displayed in the stratospheric runs and trills of Richard Strauss's Amor (Cupid), a virtuosic showpiece for soprano.

France projected with smouldering allure the delightful Mein Lippen, Sie Kussen So Heiss (kisses from my lips are so hot) from Franz Lehar's Guiditta. Vilja, from the Merry Widow, was beautifully poised and culminated in an exquisitely floated top B. The childlike simplicity of Carl Zeller's Roses in Tyrol (from Der Vogelhandler) and Kalman's ravishing Mein Traum, Mein Traum (from Kaiserin Josephine) made me want to see much more of this outstanding young lyric soprano.

It was with R Strauss that John Rigby and the Orchestra of Opera North continued - the swirling strings and blazing brass of the Waltz sequence from his opera, Intermezzo, played by this marvellous orchestra with the requisite degree of Straussian opulence.

No Viennese Whirl would be complete without Tales from the Vienna Woods, a selection of fast polkas, or a lush performance of The Blue Danube heralded by those soft ethereal high violins. The Radetzky March of Johann Strauss (Senior) is just as indispensable on these occasions. Rigby controlled with militaristic precision the audience's enthusiastic rhythmic hand clapping.

Distinguished musical authority and Classic FM presenter John Suchet made his debut as narrator of this year's concert. Suchet's erudite and witty introductions were completely in tune with this sparkling occasion. His rich and rolling articulation of German titles was a joy to hear.

Geoffrey Mogridge