Chichester: Love and enjoyment with soprano Alison Pearce
International soprano Alison Pearce promises a wide-ranging concert for the Festival of Chichester with the emphasis on enjoyment and communication.
Alison has previously performed at Chichester Festival Theatre and Chichester Cathedral and also given masterclasses at the University of Chichester, but this will be her debut at the Festival of Chichester.
The concert takes place on July 11 at 19:30 at Christ Church, Old Market Avenue, Chichester, PO19 1SW, organised through the Bognor Regis Music Club, with tickets available on
https://www.bognorregismusic.org.uk/event-details-registration/alison-pearce-international-soprano-1
Alison will offer a programme that includes “something for everyone, from songs introducing gods, goddesses and mortals in love, through the beauty of nature and wedded bliss to enchanted islands and finishing with fun and frolics!”
Alison has enjoyed a distinguished career in opera, oratorio and recital, appearing with leading conductors and orchestras around the world.
She said: “I want to entertain everyone and I want to communicate with them. That's my big thing, communication. I have put together a programme of lots of pieces that I love but I would say the overall themes are enjoyment and love.
“I'm starting with Where'er You Walk by Handel. It was first performed at Covent Garden where the Opera House is. I live about two minutes’ walk from there. I can get back home for an interval drink if I wanted to!
“This particular piece is about a human falling in love with a god. She is having an affair with him. The result is Bacchus who is the god of wine and ecstasy. But she gets consumed by fire because she wants to see Jupiter in his godly form. It's all very exciting!
“It's a programme of compositions that I love and some are in foreign languages but I don't want people to be put off by that. I know some people don't want to go to some recitals because of things being in foreign languages but I've given lectures where I've proved that people can understand them even if they don't understand the language. They just need to use their innate senses and they will know what is happening.”
As for the notion of communication: “I think I've got something to say which is important though other people may have other ideas! I give out what I feel is right and appropriate and people can take from it what they want. I just think that if people come along who are open to what is happening, they will enjoy themselves at whatever level feels right for them.”
Part of the fun is that Alison likes to chat during a performance: “I have got funny stories to tell. I can mix the serious and the amusing.”
This isn't the kind of classical music where the performer is set on a pedestal: “When I've met audiences afterwards at various concerts, someone once said to me ‘You are really ordinary, aren't you!’ They must have had some kind of fantasy seeing me on stage of what I actually was, as some kind of ideal. But I am really not!”