(soprano) and DAVID SYRUS (piano) - Wagner Society of England

EDINBURGH PLAYERS OPERA GROUP GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG WEEKEND
A YOUNG HELDENTENOR’S EXPERIENCE
Jonathan Finney
The Edinburgh Opera Players Group Wagner weekends have given me the opportunity to
sing Tristan, Parsifal, Walther von Stolzing, Loge, Siegmund, and both Siegfrieds. This is
music and drama that I adore, and I feel I have won the raffle every time I am allowed to
sing next to magnificent sopranos like Sarah Estill, Kim Myers and Elaine McKrill.
The Northern Wagner Orchestra and the Edinburgh Opera Players Group present
rare chances to be involved in what would be an arid field of possibility without the
Wagner Society and the Mastersingers Company. With these groups we singers have been
given wonderful opportunities to explore the demands and rewards of our roles.
I am always conscious of the fact that everything is owed to the orchestra, without
whose presence, enthusiasm and skill these chances for the singers would not arise. The
feeling of support which we singers experience at Edinburgh and Leeds is phenomenal.
However I sing I know that it goes better because of the extremely committed atmosphere
that surrounds us all, emanating from the instrumentalists and conductors. They are
amateurs in the original sense of doing something from a feeling of love.
Malcolm Rivers as the prime mover behind the Mastersingers was particularly
supportive to me when I began to move into Wagnerian territory. He enabled me to sing
Mime in Rheingold with the Rehearsal Orchestra in 2003. The next year I was promoted
to sing Loge opposite Donald McIntyre at Longborough. Malcolm also assembled a
lovely crowd of flower maidens at Childwickbury including Kim Myers, who sang an
excellent Brünnhilde here at Edinburgh these last two years. He provided a helping hand
in my development as a heldentenor and was always robustly supportive. Our coaching
sessions were always constructive, raucous and humorous occasions.
jonathan.finney@btinternet.com
Rob Saunders reports from the second violins
It is always a huge privilege to be able to play complete Wagner music dramas. You spot
all kinds of musical subtleties (fleeting glimpses of leitmotifs, clever orchestration, etc)
that pass you by as a mere listener. It is of course also physically a huge effort. We spent
three hours rehearsing on the Thursday then eight hours each on Friday and Saturday.
Speaking as a violinist, while Act I is the longest it's Act II which is the killer, with
pages and pages of tremolandos to do our backs in. It's a huge effort trying to fix players
for these weekends, and, amazingly, not everyone leaps at the chance of giving up several
days to wear themselves out playing Wagner. Are they weird, or is it us?
The singers were fabulous. Jonathan Finney was brilliant as usual (he's been
singing with us since our 2005 Tristan), and our Brünnhilde (Kimberley Myers) and
especially Waltraute (Magdalen Ashman) were also great. Of course the real miracle is
that our Conductor Mike Thorne continues to have the stamina and good humour to coax
us all through it year in, year out. It is amazing to think that we have now done two full
Rings and will be doing our second Parsifal next year.
rob_saunders@blueyonder.co.uk
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