Dream of Gerontius 2025St Andrews Chorus
Read more about the opera Dream of Gerontius
Because of continuing issues in recent years with their local Younger Hall, the excellent St Andrews Chorus and orchestra have made a very welcome addition to the autumn schedule in the Caird Hall.
Gerontius is an ideal work to be heard in the lovely warm acoustic. This was the first large-scale choral work to be heard in the hall, back in 1921, but performances have been surprisingly infrequent and Dundee Choral Union has not offered it since the turn of the century, when a youthful Jamie MacDougall was heard in the title role.
The young tenor on this occasion was Liam Forrest, who gave a highly accomplished account of a demanding part. Laura Margaret Smith's smoothly produced alto has developed nicely in recent years, and her account of the Angel's Farewell was memorably calm and beautifully phrased. Jonathan May was on suitably majestic form in his two short characters.
The St Andrews Chorus, augmented by the McPherson Singers, gave solid support throughout, being particularly effective as demons. The River Tay Sinfonia produced some lovely sounds under Michael Downes' experienced direction. The whole performance was beautifully paced and received with great enthusiasm by the audience.
Michael Downes is now in the habit of giving an interesting talk before many of his St Andrews operatic performances either at the Byre or Laidlaw Centre. It is good to see him extending this practice to Dundee with a talk at 6.45.
