Treading the Boards: From Shakespeare to Sondheim at Unity Hall, Tunbridge Wells on Saturday 1st July 2023

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Treading the Boards

From Shakespeare to Sondheim

Part of the Tonbridge Philharmonic 2022 -2023 Season

Add to my Calendar 01-07-2023 19:30 01-07-2023 21:30 36 Treading the Boards We’re taking our music to a new venue – to Unity Hall in Southborough. The performing space is bright and new, seating is raked and there is a chance to have a glass of wine outside in the piazza in the interval. Come and enjoy the evening with us! It is not unusual for a Music Director such as Naomi Butcher, when contemplating the final concert of a season, to turn to the lighter side of music making for their programme. There are lots of pieces to chose from, and for 2023 Naomi looks to the theatre for inspiration. Given that there have often been musical interludes and even short ‘ballet’ scenes in plays since the earliest times, this given her lots to think about. Almost all of the pieces she has put together will be known to our audience, and well known to many who will be with us on 1st July. Opening with Thomas Morley’s setting of the lighthearted It was a lover and his lass from As you like it, we progress to the much darker adaptation of Dido and Aeneas by Purcell – not the usual When I am laid Earth this time, but In our deep vaulted cell,  the Echo Dance of the Furies, and Great minds against themselves conspire. From there we move into the gentle Ombra mai f from Handel’s opera Xerxes, and Mozart’s stately Heil sei euch Geweihten from The Magic Flute. The mood is still somewhat sombre for Va, pensiero – more commonly known as The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves – a Verdi chorus from Nabucco which most choir members can sing from memory! The atmosphere then grows lighter with a drinking song, Dance a cachuca, from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. We segue from there to the middle of the 20th Century, to the inimitable Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser. Luck be a Lady and Sit down, you’re rocking the boat are included in this medley, and require the musicians to up their game to meet the demands of the syncopation, jazz rhythms and spoken sections. Highlights from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music take us to the finale, with a selection of hits from Les Misérables that are sure to have everyone humming along. Unity Hall, Tunbridge Wells DD/MM/YYYY

Details

Unity Hall
137 London Road
Southborough
Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN4 0NA
England

Saturday 1st July 2023
7:30 PM

Programme

Georges Bizet – Carmen: Prelude
Thomas Morley – It was a lover and his lass (As you like it: Act V Scene 3)
George Frideric Handel – Serse: 'Ombra mai fu'
Giuseppe Verdi – Nabucco: Va, pensiero
Carl Maria von Weber – Oberon: Overture
Gilbert and Sullivan – The Gondoliers: 'Dance a Cachucha'
Rodgers & Hammerstein – Sound of Music: Selection
Frank Loesser – Guys and Dolls: Choral medley
Stephen Sondheim – Send in the Clowns
Claude-Michel Schonberg – Les Miserables: selections

Performers

Naomi Butcher – Conductor

Tonbridge Philharmonic Society

Other concerts in this Series (+)

Programme Note

We’re taking our music to a new venue – to Unity Hall in Southborough. The performing space is bright and new, seating is raked and there is a chance to have a glass of wine outside in the piazza in the interval. Come and enjoy the evening with us!

It is not unusual for a Music Director such as Naomi Butcher, when contemplating the final concert of a season, to turn to the lighter side of music making for their programme. There are lots of pieces to chose from, and for 2023 Naomi looks to the theatre for inspiration. Given that there have often been musical interludes and even short ‘ballet’ scenes in plays since the earliest times, this given her lots to think about.

Almost all of the pieces she has put together will be known to our audience, and well known to many who will be with us on 1st July. Opening with Thomas Morley’s setting of the lighthearted It was a lover and his lass from As you like it, we progress to the much darker adaptation of Dido and Aeneas by Purcell – not the usual When I am laid Earth this time, but In our deep vaulted cell, the Echo Dance of the Furies, and Great minds against themselves conspire. From there we move into the gentle Ombra mai f from Handel’s opera Xerxes, and Mozart’s stately Heil sei euch Geweihten from The Magic Flute. The mood is still somewhat sombre for Va, pensiero – more commonly known as The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves – a Verdi chorus from Nabucco which most choir members can sing from memory!

The atmosphere then grows lighter with a drinking song, Dance a cachuca, from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. We segue from there to the middle of the 20th Century, to the inimitable Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser. Luck be a Lady and Sit down, you’re rocking the boat are included in this medley, and require the musicians to up their game to meet the demands of the syncopation, jazz rhythms and spoken sections. Highlights from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music take us to the finale, with a selection of hits from Les Misérables that are sure to have everyone humming along.

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