CityLife

Hayley Westenra

 

IF angelic soprano Hayley Westenra were prone to diva strops, then surely her stage manager's ears would have been ringing with expletives during the interval.

As the 21-year-old New Zealander arrived on the Bridgewater Hall stage to find everything except the most important component in place - the microphone.

The laidback Kwii singer simply laughed it off with a curtsey and a wry smile though, while her pianist Tim Evans was despatched to recover one.

Normal business resumed, within seconds of launching into her opening number The Prayer, it was keenly evident to see just why a virtually sold out crowd were happy to hang on to their tickets after the original date last November was cancelled at the last minute.

Now fully recharged after a spell back home recovering from bronchitis, Westenra's powerful, versatile and spring water pure delivery rendered the audience pin-drop silent.

Mixing contemporary numbers with age old favourites, each time introduced with a brief summary of the background of the track - Westenra, despite her tender years, is clearly a student of her art.

Irish heritage

Possessing strong Irish heritage with musical grandparents, the Christchurch singer possesses that celtic soulfulness that all great performers with links to the Emerald Isle do, so her rendition of unoffiicial Irish national anthem Danny Boy was infused with real authenticity.

Perhaps after her recent illness and wary of pushing her vocal chords too hard, after a handful of songs she vacated the stage so her string quartet Raven (featuring two Mancunians) could step into the limelight.

The four-piece (three violins and a cellist) proceeded to rip into a truncated version of Vivaldi's Four Sessions with real flair before Westenra returned to take us to the interval.

Returning for the second half, Westenra had wisely abandoned a pair of killer heels that would have made a supermodel wince and donned a more sensible sparklier pair to compliment her lemon-coloured cocktail dress.

Another folk standard and childhood favourite, Shenandoah, proved a real highlight with Westenra's captivating delivery filled with real emotion.

Here on her River Of Dreams hits tour it was two covers (following yet another dress change) that stole the show though.

Joni Mitchell's Both Side Now was sublime - capturing all the aching melancholy of the original, while Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights displayed the full cannon of her vocal capibilities.

And while Raven's spells in the limelight were at times over-egged - it was after all Westenra people had paid good money to see - when the precocious and admirably mature performer did take centre stage it was completely evident why she has sang for many world dignitries and been invited to be an ambassor for UNICEF.

It may have taken three months - and a few extra minutes to find a microphone - to catch her in Manchester again, but it was worth the wait.

 

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