A Message for the City
Leading musicians visiting Northern Ireland frequently comment on the wealth of young vocal talent in the province. Sunday’s performance of ‘A Message for the City’ in the Market Place Theatre Armagh provided a showcase for some of our finest young singers, giving them valuable experience of both opera and music theatre. The performance was the culmination of a nine month project run by TOSINI (Teachers of Singing in Northern Ireland), an organization set up to support singing teachers and promote and encourage young singers.
‘A Message for the City’ is based on the story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and uses music from Gounod’s operatic version and Bernstein’s West Side Story. Musical Director Marion Wood cleverly wove together the musical strands to create a new theatre piece in which the story is advanced sometimes through Romeo and Juliet and sometimes through Tony and Maria. The juxtaposition of the two musical styles worked a treat and added greatly to the dramatic effect of the piece. Director Peter Morgan Barnes’s minimalist production used simple props and lighting to very good effect. But the evening really belonged to the young singers.
Lurgan soprano Niamh Lavery gave an assured performance in the role of Juliet and made light work of the challenging vocal writing. Lynda Barrett was well cast in the role of Maria, displaying a beautiful, vocal quality and gave a most moving performance. Evan Ferrar was an impressive Romeo. This young tenor from Glaslough has a voice with considerable potential and showed good control particularly on the higher notes some of which were beautifully floated. Tony was played by Sunil Paulraj whose voice was well suited to the role and gave a pleasing account of the song ‘Maria’ Of the other main roles, Francis Fee (Tybalt) and Steven Irwin (Lord Capulet) both from Dungannon showed vocal maturity beyond their years. Keady soprano Joanne McClelland was an excellent Stephano with good stage presence and vocal agility.
The chorus had been well rehearsed both musically and in the effective dance routines and gave a confident performance. All the singers had clearly benefited from Paul Farrington’s inspired vocal coaching. Under the direction of Marion Wood, a three piece band (piano, keyboard and percussion) supported the singers well, maintaining a good balance at all times.
This project was a first of its kind for TOSINI, and they are to be commended for it for several reasons. Giving young singers the opportunity to experience opera and music theatre – many for the first time - in the one performance and directed by such an experienced team was inspired. But even more inspired was the decision to present the performance in Armagh. The Marketplace Theatre is an ideal size of auditorium for young voices singing without amplification. However, it also acknowledged the fact that there is a great deal of good singing going on in Northern Ireland outside of Belfast. In basing their activity in Armagh, TOSINI have shown that they want to be inclusive and involve singers from all parts of the province.
Congratulations to all involved
