Photographs taken by Colleen Gauntlett. Left click on images to enlarge.
Accolades and praises for the standard of performance by Caldicot Male Voice Choir and its Guest artistes of wonderful tenors Rhys Meirion, Aled Wyn Davies and leading West end soprano Shân Cothi at the Annual Concert in Caldicot Leisure Centre on April 8th keep flooding in. In what was without doubt one of the most remarkable and best concerts ever staged by the Choir, the audience of well over 400 was treated to an evening of fabulous entertainment that will live long in the memory of all who attended.
Host and compere, BBC Wales Today presenter, Rebecca John opened proceedings by introducing 75 choristers to the stage conducted throughout by Siân Hatton and Shirley Anne James and accompanied by Stephen Berry and John Nicholson who started with a wonderful version of Cwm Rhondda arranged by Arwel Humphreys followed by a variety of items including ‘The Impossible Dream’, ‘Eli Jenkins’ Prayer’ and for the first time for many years ‘Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn’ and ‘Comrades in Arms’.
Rhys Meirion, Aled Wyn Davies and Shân Cothi, popularly known as ‘Two T’s and a Cothi’, accompanied throughout by the talented Caradog Williams on piano took to the stage singing ‘Brindisi, the Drtinking Song’ fro Verdi’s La Traviata and then performed a beautiful rendition of all time Welsh favourite ‘Myfanwy’, followed by the iconic ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and then a wonderful version of Ave Maria written especially for the Three Welsh Tenors by Robat Arwyn. Each artiste then performed solos with Shân singing ‘I Feel Pretty’ from West Side Story, Rhys with ‘Coren ‘ngrato (Catari, catari) and finally to cap off their incredible first performance, Aled sang ‘L’alba sempara della lucci l’ongra’ by Tosti.
Caldicot Male Voice Choir took to the stage once again to complete a wonderful first part with some of their favourites, including ‘Ride the Chariot’ with soloist Sián Hatton and David Gould, ‘A Miner’s Song by Dan and Laura Curtis, Malotte’s version of The Lord’s Prayer and finalising with Haydn James’ and Jenny Trew’s arrangement of O Gymru featuring soloist,chorister Tom Hole.
Part Two opened with Choir premieres of ‘With a Voice of Singing’ and the romantic ‘Anfonaf Angel’ before singing their popular version of ‘On the Street Where You Live’ from My Fair Lady contrasted with the beautiful, well known hymn ‘Gwahoddiad’.
Shân, Rhys and Aled took to the stage again to rapturous applause and once again gave combined offerings beginning with a humorous duet from Joseph Parry’s Welsh opera ‘Blodwen’ and the waltz duet from the opera ‘The Merry Widow’ before Aled ‘s second solo of ‘I’ll Walk with God’. Shân beautifully followed this with the well known and popular favourite Puccini’s ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ before Rhys finalised a superb performance of ‘Bugail Aberdyfi’, ‘The Shepherd of Aberdovey’ by Rhys Lewis. All three returned to the stage to give a skillful demonstration of Cerrdd Dant singing which involved a superlative counter melody version of Calon Lân. The trio ended the performance with an incredible rendition of Dros Gymru’n Gwlad – a prayer for Wales (Finlandia) which prompted a long standing ovation as a tribute for a truly magnificent performance.
Caldicot returned to the stage to present a totally different style with music from the worlds of stage and film with ‘The Lady is a Tramp’ and ‘The Way We Were’ from the film of the same name before contrasting with ‘Psalm 23’ in Welsh set to music by Franz Schubert. The concert finalised with ‘You Raise Me Up’ and the Easter Hymn ‘Morte Criste’ beginning with the words ‘When I Survey the Wond’rous cross’. The audience and choir were thrilled that the guest trio of Rhys, Aled and Shân joined with the choir for the third and last verses. Again this promoted a long standing ovation.
After presentations and speeches, the concert closed when compère Rebecca John invited everyone to stand and sing ‘Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau,’ the Welsh National Anthem’ conducted by Siân Hatton and accompanied by Stephen Berry.
Invited guests for the evening included Brig. Robert Aitken CBE, Lord Lieutenant of Gwent; Kevin Thomas, High Sheriff of Gwent and Dr. Haydn James, Musical Director of the Welsh Rugby Union as well as representatives of Monmouthshire County Council.. The Choir is also extremely grateful to Caldicot Metal Decorating Ltd, represented by Mr Richard O’Neill for so generously sponsoring this event.
There is little doubt that this was one of the best concerts ever presented by Caldicot Male Voice Choir and everyone left that evening knowing that they had witnessed something special. How do we follow that?