CityLife

Suite treat as Sir John sings Shostakovich

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE DARLING: Sir John

A RARE – and precious – visit from Lancashire-born bass Sir John Tomlinson, the Lancashire-born bass who learned his singing in the Methodist choirs of Oswaldtwistle and is now the darling of Bayreuth and the Royal Opera House, takes place on Friday at the Bridgewater Hall.

The darling of Bayreuth and the Royal Opera House, he is singing Shostakovich’s Suite On Verses Of Michaelangelo with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky(left), their brilliant Russian principal guest conductor.

That’s followed by Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10, so it looks like a wonderful night out for all lovers of Shostakovich, singing and things Russian.

On Wednesday, Harry Christophers brings The Sixteen, the highly popular choral group, to the hall for a programme of English anthems for choir and organ, including Howard Goodall’s setting of The Lord’s My Shepherd, or, as it’s better known, the theme tune of The Vicar Of Dibley.

Bollington

Over in Bollington, the festival is in its second week and on Monday and Wednesday reaches what looks like the highspot of its musical enterprise (from a highly-enterprising programme).

The festival orchestra, chorus, children’s chorus from Bollington schools, festival choir and dancers from Fallibroome High School are all employed under Nicholas Smith’s baton in performances of Jonathan Dove’s opera, Tobias And The Angel.

It’s set in Nineveh and Ecbatana in Old Testament times (the story is from the book of Tobit in the Apocrypha) and is essentially a folk tale about young Tobias and the angel Rafael, who helps him to discover himself and save his family (with plenty of adventures along the way).

Michael Barry directs and the cast is led by Abigail Kelly and and Joe Damon Chappel, singers in residence for the whole festival. The performances are at 7pm in the festival marquee.

And one last chance for Ellen Kent’s opera fans – the final two performances of her ‘amphitheatre’ version of Bizet’s Carmen, by the Moldovan national opera company, from Chisinau, are at Manchester Opera House on Monday and Tuesday.