Rochdale Music Society Opera Gala Concert

Sarah Helsby-Hughes, Alexandra Tiffin, Nick Hardy and Terence Ayebare

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Sarah Helsby-Hughes (soprano), Alexandra Tiffin (mezzo-soprano), Nick Hardy (tenor) and Terence Ayebare (baritone) delighted the audience at the Rochdale Music Society Opera Gala Concert with arias, duets and ensembles from the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Verdi and Puccini.

For an hour or so the Heywood Civic Centre stage was alive with the sound of music that both soothed and excited and showed that opera has so much to offer in the way it can turn human emotion and feeling into memorable song. There was intensity, restraint, exuberance, reticence, tenderness, good humour, playfulness and trickery too.

Captivating and overwhelming by turns, all these vocalised glimpses of the joys and sorrows of human life, as portrayed in their dramatic contexts, were accompanied with finesse by John Peace, who brought to the piano a rich, orchestral dimension of sound complementing the vocal range of the singers.

The next Rochdale Music Society concert will be on 9 April when music by Bach, Debussy, Chopin and Schumann will be performed by rising star pianist, London-born Alexander Soares.