ALYTH CHORAL UNION, 16th March

Alyth Parish Church

‘It doesn’t get much better than this’, said the tenor as he picked up his hammer to strike the anvil in Verdi’s famous chorus from Il Trovatore. And do you know, it did!

The Alyth Choral Union concert, ‘Singing the Changes’ was something of a triumph and revealed what this wonderful community of Alyth is capable of. It was an evening of famous operatic extracts by almost all the most celebrated composers and it was a delight to bethere. To have Leoncavallo, Mozart, Wagner, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi, Massenet, Rossini and Bizet (and several others) all in the same evening is indeed a treat.

There were three superb young singers, the stars of the future: Natalie Montakhab (soprano), Maria Brown (mezzo) – both of whom I saw in the concluding concert of the Edinburgh Festival last year – and Chris Elliot (tenor) along with David Marsh (bass), our own very able and experienced talent (after all he did say he was a ‘somewhat mature Don’ when he got up to sing a duet from Mozart’s Don Giovanni). The singers sang solos, duets and quartets, while the choir contributed in Mascagni’s ‘Easter Hymn’, bridal and wedding choruses from Lohengrin and Lucia di Lammermuir, as well as doubling up as gypsies, villagers,party guests, and witches. Why was it I thought they were particularly convincing in the latterrole? The superb Korean pianist, Inju Ho accompanied all of this on a piano brought up speciallyfrom Edinburgh for the occasion.

What really made the evening was the relaxed and informal atmosphere. James Robertson’sintroductions were witty and neatly done (if he sometimes turned to the choir tooquickly and dropped the last words); the singers sometimes introduced their own pieces; and they also back-chatted a bit. When James described Violetta in La Traviata, that wronged but totally redeemed woman, as a ‘high-class tart’, Chris Elliot said ‘Well she does come from Manchester’ (Natalie that is). Opera should indeed be fun and this was absolutely the right way to present an evening of extracts such as this.

The Alyth Choral Union can pull some remarkable rabbits (Easter or otherwise) out of the hat. I remember a few years ago seeing a man put down his trumpet in Perthshire Brass on just such an evening. He got up and sang a knock-out aria and it turned out to be the internationally known tenor Barry Banks (recently Edgardo in English National Opera’s Lucia) taking a little holiday to play his trumpet in between engagements at the New York Met and Covent Garden. When I told my opera fan friends what can happen in Alyth Kirk they were green with envy.

There was only one thing disappointing about this really excellent performance and thatwas the level of support. It is true that there were choral events taking place in Dundee and Perth; it is even the case that TV was a big draw that evening (for heaven’s sake record itand see it later, as we did). But in the age-old phrase, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. If welost these Choral Union concerts, actually rather expensive to put on, we would lose one ofthe great adornments of life in Alyth. I have attended opera performances from London toBuenos Aires, Venice and Vienna to Vancouver, Rome to New York, Sydney to Stockholm,Edinburgh to Munich, but I have lots of time for this kind of talented, informal and thoroughlyenjoyable evening. And it was a snip at 5 a head. Next time, people of Alyth, GO!

Warm thanks to the hard-working members of the choral union, James the conductor, thewonderful soloists and pianist, the generous sponsors Thomson and Potter, Skoda Dealers of Burrelton, and the Church for hosting the event.

John MacKenzie