Singers from Opera North visited BITMOs GATE centre in Belle Isle today (23 October 2017) to perform their Whistelstop guide to opera.
The half hour show cleverly stitched together songs (arias) from a range of operas to form a simple story of a couple falling in love, out of love and finally reconciling.
We started with some audience participation as we joined to together to hum the tune Nessun Dorma, made famous as the theme tune to the Italia 90 football tournament.
We went on to watch a classical romantic love affair, followed by a very modern falling out as the couple argued over the breakfast table – in English. As we went we learned how music and song (with or without words) can convey a mood, or an emotion.
Our opera finished with the Merry Widow Waltz :
All the world’s in love with love, And I love you.
The performers, Ellen, John and Milo, backed by accordionist Georgio were tremendous and showed the huge range of music, emotion and storytelling that is opera.
The performance was followed by a question and answer session, which covered singing in foreign languages, dealing with a cold and the world of the chorus and the soloists.
