Risca Male Choir - Blog #28
Welcome back to my monthly blog. So, what have we been up to this past month? We haven’t stopped being busy, I can tell you that for a fact! We performed at an event at the Celtic Manor at the beginning of the month to a group of members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We performed very well, especially Anfonaf Angel, which was full of emotion – it was an extremely moving performance. We have also been interviewing candidates for the position of Music Director and are pleased with how things are going. The successful candidate will be revealed in due course.
We are getting ever closer to our first large-scale concert since the pandemic began, and it’s shaping up to be a real corker of an event! We have a whole host of old and new repertoire which involves an organ, a solo group, a soloist, and many more interesting items. It will be my final concert with the gents, so to perform to a capacity audience would mean the world to me. Please contact one of our members for more information on how to buy tickets.
Welsh Musicians of the Month - Cerddorion Cymreig y Mis
Rebecca Ann Evans CBE (August 1963-present)
Evans was born in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Neath, the same village as the actor Richard Burton. He made his Royal Opera House debut in 2005 as Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and has since performed Wagnerian and Verdi roles with the company.
Evans studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, at the same time as Bryn Terfel.
She has performed regularly at the Welsh National Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera (London Coliseum) and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich.
Her major roles include Ilia (Idomeneo), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) and Nanetta (Falstaff). She has also sung Belinda in the BBC film of Dido and Aeneas and hosted the BBC television series A Touch of Classics with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Dame Shirley Bassey (January 1937-present)
Bassey's first job involved her packaging enamelware in a factory. However, this didn't stop her testing out her vocal chords. She says: "The supervisor would say, 'Bassey, what do you think you're doing? All of you, get back to work!' The whole factory would stop. I didn't realise what I was doing."
Shirley may be quite clean-cut these days, but in 1956 one of her early singles was actually banned by the BBC. Her track Burn My Candle (At Both Ends) was deemed too suggestive by radio bosses.
Bassey hasn't lead a life completely free of controversy. In 1978, she pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly and shouting abuse in the street. It was the result of too much pink champagne, apparently!
Bassey has become synonymous with James Bond thanks to her work on the classic theme songs. She has worked on three: Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker