The Road to Paradise
St Andrew Blackadder Church, North Berwick, 23/05/2026
Opera East Lothian, Musical Director & Conductor John Marshall, Accompanist Allan Ramsay, Pianist Richard Lewis
The first surprise on entering the church is to see the chairs all facing back-to-front. This is in fact a brilliant ruse to stack the choir - small but perfectly formed - in the neat rake of rear pews. The about-turn, along with bright evening sun hitting the stained window behind, enhances our anticipation. The large church is packed out for Opera East Lothian.
The programme comprises favourites chosen by John Marshall and some of the choir-members. Themes of sleep, rest, eternal rest and awakening had emerged to bring us “choral music to move, stir and soothe your soul”. It’s predominantly 20th and 21st century from the British Isles or USA, stirring the audience through word as well as music.
The opening ‘Abendlied’ (Evening Song), by late 19thc Liechtenstein child prodigy Reinberger, is a perfect instruction for our soirée: “Stay with us, for it is almost evening and the day is fading.” As the choir gets going, the sweep and swell from voice to voice is blissful. Vocal eddies from groups and subgroups of singers, smooth but in high definition, reveal a surprisingly high percentage of strong solo-worthy voices.
Fulfilling this promise, a wonderful soprano, Jennifer Swan, steps down to the piano mic to lead in Eriks Ešenvalds’ ‘Only in Sleep’. The choir then shuffle places for MacMillan’s ‘O Radiant Dawn’. Its deliberate, homophonic harmonies are a contrast to the previous woozier arrangements. They perform it unaccompanied, with devout concentration.
This first set of tranquil songs ends with Dan Forrest’s setting of ‘Good Night, Dear Heart’, a simple prayer at a young child’s grave.
The centrepiece of the evening is Sir Michael Tippett’s Five Spirituals from ‘A Child of Our Time’, written in horrified response to Kristallnacht. These Negro Spirituals (‘Steal Away to Jesus’, ‘Deep River’, etc), strike our ears as half-familiar, half-mysterious. Harmonies, echoes, calls and responses surge across the stage and fine, featured voices embrace their moments to shine (Chris Stevens, Iain Brown, Nicky Black, Alice Stephenson). They slip into new positions for each song, which gives visible form to the changing dynamics. It’s exciting and the applause is rapturous.
There was just time before the interval for Vienna Teng’s quirky ‘Hymn of Acxiom’ (Acxiom being the digital Daddy who knows all your data). Soprano Jennifer Swan showed the qualities of the human voice as she led from the piano’s mic. The choir provided fine backing in the middle, but otherwise their place was taken by the electronic piano’s mic-harmony. Will human choirs like Opera East be redundant in the oncoming digital future?
There were two pianos. Allan Ramsay surrendered the larger one and most of the role of accompanist to guest Richard Lewis. The latter introduced, most eloquently, and played, even more eloquently, a piano solo in each half. The first was Mozart’s chorale ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ arranged for piano by Liszt; the second, with massive aplomb and passion, part of Addinsell’s ‘Warsaw Concerto’. An extra un-programmed treat.
The second half continued every bit as lovely as the first and even more varied, with Charles Wood, Fauré’s ‘Into Paradise’, Karl Jenkins’ a capella earworm ‘Cantate Domino’, Taverner, Billy Joel and Elaine Hagenberg.
I do like this little choir with its big voice, their skill and joy in complex polyphonies. And I like how John Marshall directs, not just driving the timing but seeming to keep aloft each set of singers, like a Hindu deity spinning plates.
For audience members and anyone else interested the programme is online with more detailed background notes than can be squeezed onto the printed copies.
Go to https://www.operaeastlothian.com/concert-ii