The Lazy Sheep and the Boy, plus 55

I had the most wonderful morning today. I heard 55 five and six year olds singing The Boy and the Sheep, from the marvellous Purple Book. Now one must bear in mind that not only were these very tiny tots, but they were all singing in English. This was still a class called 'Singing in a Foreign Language'.

I was utterly astonished. They were for the most part very confident, very excited about singing in the big hall filled with parents, sisters, cousins and aunts, and to a judge they had obviously never seen before. They all bowed beautifully to me before they began, and then again at the end. This was not forced or drilled singing, it was sheer enjoyment on their's, and my part.

It is easy to tell where each child comes from as they are all wearing ultra smart, and to jaded UK eyes, old fashioned uniforms, which they seem to wear very proudly. There are some fine Primary schools here clearly, who all take music by seriously. Actually I imagine they take all subjects very seriously! However, this edge of 'wanting to do their very best' was a joy to behold. I certainly did not see any pressed men, so to speak!

There were no placings for this class, just a grade A B C Or D. I did not give any D's, and only 3 C's, and those were to little ones who clearly were suffering from the dreaded flu and really tried but genuinely could not make a sound! I gave an even spread of A's and B's, and for 3 little ones an A seemed rather too low!

I heard a small girl sing the most gorgeous, musical, and sensitive performance of this little song, whilst swaying too and fro with the music and hitting the top E flats like they were as easy as falling off a log! NB a top E flat for the vast majority of this age group is almost impossible!

After my comments to the audience I decided a good thing would be to have all the littlies together on stage and sing the song like a choir. Well it was Oriental mayhem, which, you must understand is not like UK mayhem, but still a little on the wild side, but eventually they stood in 3 neat rows, with all school uniforms mixed together like a primary school pudding, and they raised the roof with their performance of ' The Boy and the Sheep' a French folk song, translated into English, and sung by Chinese children!

After the competition was over, I was literally besieged by parents wanting their child to be photographed with the adjudicator! I lost count of the numbe of times I was photographed after I had counted 94.........those of you who know me well, will realise this was like an inevitable torture. I knew it would happen but was Most definitely unprepared for the hefty degree of smiling. Quite apart from my natural physique, I decided there and then modelling was not for me!

I was a free woman after this sizeable morning, and caught the MTR. Are you not impressed that I made my way in rush hour to Chai Wan station, and the back to the hotel with ne'er as much as a wrong turn and it is only my 5th day here ! So here I am at the CafeO where the wifi is free for the price of a coffee.

Actually the coffee is excellent, so the wifi really IS free, before anyone tries to tell me different!

PS I would have loved to post a picture of the tots choir, but it is against Federation rules, so I cannot, take it from me, it was cuteness in profusion!

The Star Ferry and 55 performances of Brahms

from the water looking back at Wan Chai and my hotel

Sunday Feb 26th Recovery and Reception in the afternoon

I had an exploratory walk over the remarkable walkways which seem to cover the whole of Hong Kong. I climbed the stairs to the foot bridge near the hotel and walked via this elevated pathway to the harbour and the famous Star Ferry port. Feeling very pleased with myself for negotiating the many and various directions and arriving exactly where I wanted to be, I proceeded to make a bit of a Western fool of myself by being seemingly incapable of buying a ticket!

Eventually two charming young women standing behind me, took pity on my ineptitude, and helped me to understand that infact I had simply put my money in a change machine NOT a ticket machine! No wonder there was no token appearing from the collection shelf! After a few minutes and many gesticulations later I finally understood and went to the correct machine and got my small black token for the journey over the water to mainland Kowloon.

Kowloon is where I stayed 25 years ago when I came to Hong Kong to perform, so I wanted to wander about a bit. I recognised nothing in all honesty, except the ferry itself. The Star Ferry is an icon of old Hong Kong and still plies its way back and forth chugging out smoke from it's funnel, adding to the fumes, but being rather romantic and a little leftover of bygone colonial days.

Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip, and found over the other side at Tsim Shat Tsui the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, a brand spanking new concert hall venue with more performing spaces under one roof than Windsor Castle! I did find out that the Hong Kong Ballet is performing in the next few weeks, so as it seems impossible to get tickets for the Rugby Sevens, the Ballet makes a fine second choice! I am not sure I will have any takers amongst the other adjudicators, most of whom are chaps whose idea of jolly good evening's entertainment is more along the lines of a few beers and a meal the size of Inverness!




Note the lovely invitation on the poster at the Concert Hall

Feb 27th Day One of Work

I had to find my own way to my first venue as it is considered Urban, and quite close to the hotel. I decided a taxi was the better part of valour as I did not want to be late on my first day. I arrived at the Youth Centre, a huge 12 floor building and was shown to the Studio which already contained my Assistant, Connie and neat rows of chairs already numbered and finished by a gleaming new Yamaha piano.

The class was 14 and Under Girls. I did not really know what to expect in terms of standard, but I was not disappointed. 47 of the 55 girls were beautifully prepared, smartly dressed in school uniforms of all hues, and ready to perform to the best of their ability. The overall winner was at the top of the best I would hear in the UK, and I settled into the comfortable, known country of adjudicating young singers of any nationality. My only real dilemma was whether I tries to pronounce names when I was giving my adjudication!

Being the coward I am, I opted to use their number - I know, the easy option. Maybe as the days go by I may become braver!

My Cantonese is very rusty!!?

Ivor Gurney and Best in Show Adjudicator

I made it! Here I am at the Gloucester Road Luk Kwok Hotel in Wanchai Hong Kong. The flight with Cathay Pacific was very stress free, I had pre booked one of the so called 'secret seats', which means they don't advertise the fact that is has more room, only two seats together instead of 3 or 4, and two windows! The airline economy food was very tasty, light and Asian, with lots of help yourself snacks and drinks. The films were excellent, very up to date and over 500 to chose from - that included Bollywood, Asian and Western, lots of choice.

After immigration and baggage reclaim, I was taken to a limousine area and efficiently and ultra politely whisked to my hotel, where after a hot and restorative cup of Scottish tea, which I had brought with me, I unpacked and decided to have a wander around the Wanchai area.

I was shocked ( yet pleasantly so) to find a Marks and Spencers just 100 metres from the hotel, along with the ubiquitous Macdonalds, all mixed up with totally traditional Chinese food shops selling all types of food I am not yet brave enough to taste, and Chinese medicine parlours where I could have cured my ear infections of a few weeks ago with eye of newt and leg of frog had I the disposition so to do! I also found to my utter delight, a tiny open window, with two equally tiny ladies running a business called the British Laundry ! Here I can leave between 1lb and 8 lb's of washing and have it done for $HK41. That is the grand sum of £3.20. Maybe there is an opening for them in Paradise, for those who would love all that stuff done for them - ie ME !

By the afternoon a large Manila envelope had arrived for me at the hotel which had in it a large file of timetables, transport, rules and regs, travel expense forms and directions to venues which are nearby. Along with that came a beautifully bound book of all the set pieces, a couple of formal invitations to the Reception tomorrow and two more formal dinners during the festival. There was a smaller white envelope containing my ID Badge. Please note the photograph, I will feel like a Best in Show winner at Crufts wearing it, and I, and presumably all my colleagues whose badges proudly display the national colours of our flags, will not be missed!

What a triumph of organisation, such efficiency and such a well thought out information pack. No trace of indecision or jobsworth elements here. Just a fantastic model of total correctness, clarity of statement and all wrapped in polite and kind wording. Bravo HKSMA.

The time difference is tough, I stayed awake until around 2 pm HK time but then fell asleep for around 4 hours, I hope I still sleep tonight, as yet my body clock is still feeling as if it is puffing around a metaphorical assault course.

I went down to one of the hotel restaurants at 9pm and although it was teeming and I felt shockingly tempted by the amazing and colourful extensive Chinese buffet menu, I decided to have a small Phai Tai (?) which turned out to be a noodle dish with chicken and king prawns lightly steamed in a delicious sesame sauce. I avoided the garnish which was a whole chilli pepper grandly sitting like the HK Peak itself at the pinnacle of the dish! Delicious indeed.

Whilst most of this is nothing to do with singing, you may be interested to know that the set pieces are excellent. I was so pleased to see such a proliferation of set songs. The setting of an obligatory piece has gone out of fashion in many British Festivals, largely caving in to the musical theatre and light music lobby, who want to enter those classes which ever before have been the domain of the classical singer.

Anyhow, it seems I will here among many others, a large bouquet of Silent Noon's by Vaughan Williams, a small forest of Under the Greenwood Tree's by Ivor Gurney, a veritable flock of Cuckoo's by Martin Shaw, and a feast of Caro mio Ben's by the young tenors of this tiny region of China. What is the collective noun for songs ? Answers on a postcard to the Far East. Interesting note - I am adjudicating the Singing in a Foreign language classes !

Of course !

Lascia ch'io Pianga

A rather shy and academic girl was singing on my second Durham extravaganza day. She had, as yet had only one term of singing lessons, although had most likely had them at school prior to entering university. She was late in the day and had had a long sit before her moment arrived.

She firstly sang the touchingly beautiful song 'Wee Hughie' by Dorothy Parke, a song about a mother letting her youngest child go off to school, holding tightly to the hand of big brother Denny, and wearing Joe's old coat, which was clearly 11 sizes too large! She sang the song through quite beautifully, full of pathos, and with real musicality. I felt cheated of something, and then suddenly it dawned upon me that I simply could not see her eyes, the windows of the soul.

I asked her if she would mind removing her spectacles, to which question she gave a helpless shriek and claimed unspeakable blindness and the inability to put one foot in front of another! I gently agreed, and then said firmly 'Off with your specs girl!'

I explained to he that I was also a bat in disguise, and when performing myself I often had to have a white line taped onto the edge of the stage to prevent premature death by a dive into the orchestra pit. But, I went on, the glory of the mole scenario is that you can sing in a bubble, you cannot see the audience with all the distraction they cause a performer, and in a childlike sort of way, we think that the audience cannot see us! A vacuum, a delicious singing bubble all of one's own.

As if by magic, this already expressive young lady, suddenly opened her hitherto half closed, and faintly squinting eyes, forgot we were there and sang as if a thunderbolt had struck at her heart, waking it and sending it soaring.

Everything changed. Absolutely everything. Her face radiated, her voice rang like a peal of bells, the eyes shone and we were all quite simply stunned.

Her second piece was Lascia ch'io Pianga by Handel. I 'chained' her to the wall and gave her a silent and heartless jailer whom she could not physically reach and it was as if we were watching a remarkable professional in the full bloom of a career. Every inflection, every look, every rending sigh and sob was straight from her core. The tears in the room flowed, and I had nothing to say.

Sometimes interfering is quite wrong. Sometimes, though not very often, a performance is so complete it says all there is to say. Even at her tender age this was one of those moments.

This young lady is reading Modern Languages, not Music, and when asked by her teacher M ' Did you know you could do that?', she replied quite honestly with a simple 'No'.

Then it was time for tea. There was precious little chat, most of us felt deeply moved, and a little reluctant to move on. It was an astonishing moment for all. Old, young, professional, amateur, and all stages between.

Those moments make my job the best work in the world. Bar none. Thank you young H.

The Creation and the tour guide

I had a most remarkable two days with M in Durham. The nature of institutional teaching means that there is always a loss at the top end, and a new intake at the bottom. This is one of the reasons why each time I go I hear someone brand spanking new. This time was no exception. I heard some very fine singing and met a number of highly talented youngsters, with enough potential to stretch from Paradise to Gatwick Airport !

A small 13 year old gave me a deliciously cheeky Raggle Taggle Gypsies, a folk song I have not heard in 20 years, and another 14 year old sang the Geordie folk song Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron with sparkling words and wonderfully spitting consonants. Both were lovely, bright and perky performances. I was also treated to a gorgeous performance of one of the Haydn arias for Bass from The Creation. Young N, came with Miranda's singers last year to Paradise and wowed us with his German Lieder as well as his good lucks and raffish charm! He was singing this aria so well, centred, dark chocolate tone and intelligence, but somewhere along the line he had just forgotten that the aria is about all the magnificence of the newly created world, the rolling billows, the mountains, the rivers and shady vales, so I decided that he should be a tour guide around this new planet and take a party who had never seen 'earth' before and show them it's beauty ! Not quite a 'Classical' approach, but it worked !

Approaching the song from reality opens up so many more opportunities for colouring the voice, and livening up the text. Being a boy of much brain he was fantastic, and in a split second changed from a fine and well taught singer into an individual who had more to offer the listener, more to engage them with and more more more in general.

I would have paid ready money to hear the finished product ! Sometimes unorthodoxy in teaching is simply the only way.

I can do unorthodox!

PS. Tomorrow I will tell of a totally unexpected and miraculous Lascia chio Pianga............bated breath

Dido's Lament, what a finale

The Business End



Early One Morning


Well I am off tomorrow morning. At last. When I was booked 2 years ago I don't think I ever thought this moment would arrive. It seems like so long ago.

The bags are packed, the laptop needs unplugging and putting to bed in my briefcase. The adjudicating paraphernalia is already in the said brown leather bag, the bi focals so I can quickly write and look up and watch, then head down to write again. The 30 pens, all black ink, as well as my fountain pen and lots of cartridges, which on the whole I prefer to write with, but I may run out of black fuel, and will then resort to roller balls. My descriptor aide memoire which sits next to the sheet I am writing, so that in a 35 second baby song if I need a word so quickly to keep the flow of the class going I can refer to it in a nanosecond. Finally, my trusty bottle of anti bacterial spray to clean my hands after shaking the sticky mits of 60 under 10's, and not catch every bug known to man!

This was advice given to me years ago by a number of revered and somewhat old school adjudicators. I think most of them used a bottle of TCP! The modern, kind to the hands stuff I use, most likely does not strip the top 4 layers of skin, as I am sure the TCP did in days of adjudicating yore!

I finished my teaching for the term with a fine trio of youngsters aged from 7 years to 21 years. Each superb at their own level, and a wonderful send off to the Hong Kong Festival which is all ages up to 23. We had repertoire from Early One Morning, that gorgeous English folk song, much maligned from school days, but in reality a most lovely tune and rather poetic words. We passed on to the most yearning of arias, Grief for Sin from Bach's Matthew Passion, via a perky little performance of Were I Thy Bride from Yeoman of the Guard (remember the song and the dog cuddling strategy?!), and finishing my day with Dido's Lament. M sang the heart rending Purcell with such depth and such glorious and rich tone, how could I want for anything more to send me on my way.

The Blackbird's Song in two versions

The final week before I depart - I am much touched that many of my pupils are sad that they will not have lessons until May 7th after this week. It makes me feel needed!!
The rehearsal timetable for Patience is done for the next 5 sessions, and they have been given a good deal of learning, and much work to cover, I feel certain L and C will keep the whip poised for slackers!

I am masterclassing in Durham at the weekend, as my penance for staying halfway to the South with M ! So I will be assured of some fine singing, but more importantly I must remember to take some choral music she has been reminding me about, which she wants to do with her singers. One is an SSA song called 'The Blackbird's Song' by Percy Buck. A gloriously understated choral piece, and difficult to bring off due to the massive amount of close harmony singing at ppppp ! The poem is an allegory of Mary Magdelene waiting at Heaven's gate to be let it. She is sorry, sorry sorry, but all to no avail, until the blackbird pleads for her, and finally 'when he has sung himself to sleep, One came out, and Magdelene went in'.

The version E is singing is a solo song by Liza Lehman. It is quite tricky and covers a very wide range, but still has all the pathos of the SSA song. It is such a gorgeous song, full of key changes as the music becomes more melancholy, yet changes to such a tranquil final section for the entry into Heaven.

Poetry must be of vital import to a singer. If you cannot feel the words there is little chance of understanding the song. All my life I loved English 20th Century Art Song, and I always felt that so many singers and teachers simply never took it seriously, and thus did not give it the reverence it deserved.

Many thanks ladies of song (and the odd man!) who took me out for a celebratory dinner last saturday. It was in honour of exam successes, and it was a truly lovely evening! Lots of laughter, much too much great food, and grand companionship. Roll on the next lot of exams I say!

Der Rosenkavalier damn it

A wild and kittenish Octavian, Sarah Connolly

Well the ear proved to have a double infection - outer ear and inner ear, so I have have to tread very carefully for the rest of the week. I tried teaching a little but my eardrum was feeling the sound too much so I gave in and cancelled my teaching! Even the little ones were a tad too loud. Actually I think the percussive effect of the piano was almost the most painful. The miracle that is antibiotics are definitely working however, so fingers crossed for a full recovery by the middle of next week!

So many folk have missed quite vital lessons and I am riddled with guilt, but in the end if I damage my ear permanently there will be no more anyway!

I was thinking about going to the opera when I go down south at the end of next week, and I noticed that the divine mezzo Sarah Connolly was playing the Travesti (male role!) part of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. As it happens, and much to my deep disappointment the final performance is the evening that I actually fly. Aaagh!

I had never heard the opera until I was about 35 ! I can give no explanation for my crass stupidity in always fighting shy of it, except in my studying years we listened to a good deal of later Strauss works such as Salome and Elektra and to be honest I found them very hard work, and very hard on the voice. Then one day I opened the Radio Times (now there is a bit of the past!) and saw that Rosenkavalier was on the TV with a masterful cast including Kiri te Kanawa, Barbara Bonney and Ann Murray. I decided in a half hearted sort of way to give it a go.

Picture the scene if you will. I was lounging on the sofa, TV at the far corner of the room. It began, I realised actually (just as I had been taught!) it really was a modern Mozart opera. The first Act ended and I was on the floor closer to the box. By the presentation of the rose scene I was in front of the fire on the floor 2 metres closer, and by the trio in the final act I was peering closely at the TV with tears rolling down my cheeks, unable to drag myself from the screen.

Why, oh why had I wasted all those years? Why had I not given it a try when I was 20?

Perhaps, I reason nowadays, it is because I was by then truly ready for the impact and the intensity of the work, which may have slightly bypassed me when I was greener and younger. Maybe in my 30's I had a deeper empathy for the 32 year old Marschellin who has to give up the young boy, and does it with such grace, for the young and beautiful Sophie.

It is a Marriage of Figaro type work but with a more personal and human take of the emotions of the characters. Strauss says all the things Mozart did but with a broader coloured palette, brighter hues, and more tears.

Sarah Connolly has had rave reviews for her Octavian/Cherubino role, and I am very cross ENO did not consult me as to my diary before they set their schedule. It is a revival as well, so it could be years before it comes around again, by which time Madam Connolly will probably have retired!

Blast.



Felicity Lott, Anne Sofie von Otter and Barbara Bonney

Erbarme Dich, and my poor ear

Thank you Mr Bach

Apart from the fact that I am almost completely deaf in my left ear, it was a very good first day back to normal teaching! All the flying in the time I was away plays havoc with my ears. One of the reasons I had to retire from the Academy was due to the relentless flying each week, for 5 years. Now flying too much within a short period brings back the ear pain and blockage.

Thus, teaching with a blocked ear causes pressure on the ear drum, and any note from C above middle C to the F above is like an Exocet missile hitting my inner ear, especially if it is well placed, and resonantly forward! So pupils, the better the singing, the more torturous the agony! I am indeed the victim of my own success!

Bach. The man. The great man. The most taxing of composers for he voice. He treats the human voice as just another 'mechanical' instrument, with all the flexibility that entails. Except we as singers are NOT instruments, so the intricacies and technical facility his music demands is at the outer edge of manageable, especially if one wants to do the sublime music justice!

My true and dark chocolate contralto is making a brilliant and brave job of the glorious 'Erbarme dich ' from the Matthew Passion. She works like a Trojan, listens with fine ears to the tricky intervals, and has now more or less progressed to singing it with me playing as much as I can of the violin obligato which twists and winds in a quite heavenly way, but in no way helps the already viciously difficult vocal line. She deserves a medal, it is around 15 years since I have taught this fiendish but delicious aria. It needs total concentration, great confidence and much musicality to sing well !

Magnificent job that woman!

Link to Julia Hamari singing it. Quite old but utterly glorious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPAiH9XhTHc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Inch Worm, Inch Worm, Measuring the Marigold

Self Explanatory !


Simplicity is always the key. Simple music sung really beautifully will move an audience as much as clever and complicated stuff which needs so much brain during the performance that it can lose the heart of the piece.

I always try to bring a lighthearted part song, which is not religious, on my Abbey visits. We use this as a parting moment of merriment at the final choir session. The hard work has been done, these ladies, as with all nuns I have taught, work tangibly hard when I teach, they want to squeeze every last drop of knowledge from me so it can sustain their singing when I have flown the coop and they do not see me for a whole year, or at the least 9 months. It is therefore a great moment when we decide to spend 20 minutes having a jolly sing, for nothing in particular except joy.

This week I brought a 1950's/60's song from a Disney film which I used all my school teaching career many moons ago. It is called Inch Worm, and I think was sung by the inimitable Burl Ives with Hayley Mills as an all American Pollyanna type character. It is such a sweet song with simple words along the line of

Inch Worm Inch Worm
Measuring the marigold
You and your arithmetic will probably go far.
Inch Worm Inch Worm
Measuring the marigold,
Seems to me you'd stop and see
How beautiful you are.

There is a very melodious upper part which cleverly changes the harmony, but gives an opportunity for untried, religious sopranos a top line, not too high but high enough to prove very satisfying!

The sisters loved it, and of course a few knew the song from their youth, but many did not. It brought together in a jocular way all the skills they had honed during my stay, and allowed them to sing 'out', with no fear of overpowering others, and feel generally liberated vocally, and I dare to say, personally. When we must rein our voices in for most of the time we sing, a good full belt, using newly remembered vowel shapes and newly reached top G's gives such emotional and physical satisfaction by the making of a 'big and beautiful noise' !

They also sang a wonderfully hearty Happy Birthday into my iPad, which I will play to my father who was 90 yesterday, and will be so delighted!

My 'nun' sojourn is at an end. Thank you all for the pleasure of your song, company, and gastronomy. My injection of your welcome and tireless warmth will sustain me until the next time.