Julian Killingley said 8 months ago

Opera North Projects are to be highly commended for this hugely enjoyable evening. Who says you don't get "owt for nowt"? Last night's audience certainly did.

The Howard Assembly Room was set up with three main performance areas and an imposing centrepiece of an Odeon-style rainbow jukebox with bubble tracks. Judging by the numbers who photographed it, it almost stole the show. A number of white chairs and red deck chairs were scattered around the floor but most of the audience stood around the perimeter or sat on the floor. People came and went and many made regular trips to the circle bar conveniently sited next door.

The central conceit of a jukebox was well realised. Changes of performance area were signalled by flashing lights and a musical link wonderfully suggestive of the slightly wheezy mechanical jukeboxes of the 1950s which resolved itself into the theme from Danse Macabre as the lights came up on the next performance area. Whoever planned and designed this unifying link did an excellent job which the audience clearly liked.

We had the benefit of enjoying the whole last three hours of the show and heard a wide variety of pieces from the well known to the experimental. It was a challenge to not only name the music but sometimes to guess why they had been included in the Devil's Jukebox. With some our best guess was just that they were diabolically difficult to perform. There were certainly some musical surprises on that jukebox including a French song sung by Stephanie Corley (appropriately robed in a red gown) set to the tune of Danse Macabre..

It is invidious to pick out individual performances since this was an evening of virtuoso performances performed in an intimate atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of a nightclub. So close was I to Matthew Sharp at one point that I could see him sizing up whether he was likely to poke me in the eye with his cello's bow. It is also an unusual experience to be less than 10 feet from a soprano letting rip at full throat

Highlights for me included a wonderfully energetic piece performed by David Gordon (harpsichord), David le Page (violin) and Matthew Sharp which had a wild Balkan or Eastern European vitality to it, Katherine Spencer's extraordinary sounds coaxed out of her clarinet, Danny Driver's fiendishly difficult piano pieces, and the incomparable Matthew Sharp who managed to combine great readings from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, singing in a variety of styles in his rich baritone, and great cello playing. It's quite indecent that one man can be so gifted in so many different ways. Perhaps he made his own Mephistophelian pact...

To sum up - a great evening's entertainment. The performers all looked as though we're really enjoying themselves. The audience certainly were. Brava! Bravo!