holiday at home - part three

the opera singer

Singing wasn’t my first musical love. I used to be a drummer in a band called, ‘Les Aliens’ and I was the only one not allowed to sing!

It was when my friend Roger called round to see me one day that I realised I was passionate about opera. Lyn and I were living in Halesowen at the time and the girls were really small then - I must have been about 24 or 25.  Roger brought me an LP to listen to by Pavarotti called, ‘King of the High C’s’.  Every track had a high C on it, which is the hallmark of tenor singing.  Well, I was just bowled over by it!

Roger was more into the performing arts so to cut a long story short I ended up joining the Forward Operatic Company.  My very first performance was in the musical comedy, ‘Oklahoma’.  We were very popular. We used to perform at the Hippodrome in Birmingham and could fill the house with 3,000 people every night for a week.

I sang in a few more shows before I went to see the Royal Sutton Opera perform at SuttonTown Hall. I knew immediately this was just what I needed to do so I joined the company.  My very first opera was, ‘Gianni Schicchi’ by Puccini.

I started off as a baritone, but as I’ve got older my voice has dropped. I’m now a bass baritone. I’ve been training for more than 30 years with various teachers and one in particular I remember - Michael Lambert.  He rented a room in a Dickensian building in Birmingham and I went to see him for lessons in my lunchtime.

Michael was taught by Benjamino Gigli, the most famous tenor of his generation and he claimed to have a letter in his wallet written by the man himself. To Michael everyone was a tenor, like it or not!

When I’m singing well it feels as if my voice doesn’t belong to me. It’s a really ethereal thing, it’s like the voice is coming from somewhere else, from a much deeper place.  For me, there’s something really special about music in my relationship with God. It takes me to levels it’s difficult to experience in other ways.

flowers in memory

Dear Sheddists,

a poignant moment.

Mattie, my mother-in-law, died last year after a long, and ultimately happy, life. Today would have been her 96th birthday so how fitting it's also the day my dear wife takes her turn on our church flower rota.

Mattie had a fine voice and a great love of singing fostered in the Methodist church she used to attend as a child. She was a member of a choir that took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London some years ago and much to her surprise and pride she found her photograph featured in the pages of a national newspaper the very next day!

So now there are flowers placed lovingly on the altar at our own church. They bear many happy memories of Mattie and perhaps her voice may echo from heaven tomorrow as we sing God's praise.

Yours as ever,

electrofried(mr)

singing christmas carols