By the way, how's your report coming along?
Sorry Grant, I can't do pictures and reports at the same time!
Here's the main part of my report:
Before the concertsI arrived on Thursday for some sightseeing in advance of the concert. Looking at my map of St Helier (the island capital and venue for the concerts) I couldn’t help but notice streets called New Zealand Avenue and Wellington Road, so I’m sure Hayley must have felt right at home.
Having arrived on Thursday, I decided to get my bearings and see how far the opera house was from my hotel, so I arrived by the opera house at about 16:00 on the day before the concert – does this beat Richard’s record for arriving early? (28 hours!)
FridayDuring the day I did some more sightseeing - I may post some pictures later over in the photography thread if anyone is interested. I visited Mont Orgueil Castle in the afternoon of what turned out to be a very sunny day and there were excellent views out over Jersey and to sea. On speaking to the man at the kiosk on the way in, it transpired that he was also going to the opera house Friday evening and I told him he was bound to have a great time. He was also involved in a demonstration of the highly trained birds of prey at the castle (involving a hawk) – so I saw a hawk by day and a kiwi in the evening.
The ConcertI made my way into the venue just after 19:00 where I met David and we soon found our way to our seats. The theatre was reasonably full, although strangely there were quite a few empty seats in the front few rows – it turned out from speaking to the staff that people don’t generally like sitting in the front few rows as they may have to crane their neck to see the stage. However, I found the view very good, which was good news for me, but bad news for you guys because I couldn’t risk using the camera for most of the concert, hence the pictures only during the applause.
I think the set list I posted yesterday pretty much speaks for itself, and David has already fleshed out the details, so I’ll just add a few comments of my own.
The evening started with 2 songs from the Musical Originals Singers who entered from the back of the opera house for the first song. They ended their second song by announcing the star of the evening in unison “Ladies and Gentlemen, Hayley Westenra.”
Friday was only the second time I’ve seen Ian Tilley and Fiona Pears perform with Hayley, and it was interesting to note the difference in performing style and in the arrangements of the songs. Several times I noticed Ian and Fiona looking at each other during the songs and I guess that they have a more instinctive musical rapport as they know each other so well. They performed an excellent supporting role, playing superbly while never taking centre stage or deflecting any attention from Hayley. Having said that, Fiona still likes to move a bit on stage!
After the first 3 songs flew by, Hayley took a breather and we were treated to Christopher George and Emmanuelle Dumas, a pair of local musicians performing “Chanson de Matin” as Christopher pointed out, not “Martin” as written in the programme.
At this point had our first glimpse of Nicky Spence. To anyone who has not heard of him before or seen him, he was excellent entertainment throughout the evening both with his singing, his chatter between songs and his banter with Hayley during the duets. Nicky was hilarious and could probably be a stand up comedian as well as a great singer. His facial expressions and movement were also very funny and he put in a huge effort – from where I was sitting I could see the sweat dripping off him. Nicky mentioned last time he was in Jersey, at Fort Regent (which is a leisure centre) supporting Katherine Jenkins and joked about his dressing room being a mile from the stage and him being lucky to be alive after having to walk through a free weights room in a kilt and full make-up.
He was supported on stage by Christopher George on the piano. The performance of both songs in his first set was very good and he has recently finished touring West Side Story, from which he sang Maria. Nicky also mentioned Hayley’s recording of West Side Story was available in all good record shops (nice plug!)
Hayley then returned to the stage with the choir to round off the first part of the show. It was great to hear different arrangements of Abide With Me and Amazing Grace. If my memory serves me right (help me out David), Abide With Me was sung purely a capella. Hayley said it reminded her of her days singing in a school choir.
After the IntervalAfter the interval we had a brief speech from Sir Nicholas Young, Chief Executive of The Red Cross, who have a long history with the people of Jersey. He mentioned the Red Cross parcels to Jersey in 1945, the setting up of the Side by Side charity after the Tsunami in 2004 when the people of Jersey raised £2.2m (from a population of less than 100,000) and the latest project to raise money for a girls school in Pakistan following the earthquake in Kashmir last year. He also mentioned that it would be more difficult for guests to get out because he had colleagues with collection buckets manning the exits!
Nicky came back on stage in a kilt to rapturous applause and we had some audience participation where he had a fudge and whisky reward for the person who completed his phrase correctly and in the most enthusiastic manner; “let the wind blow high let the wind blow low...” This was followed by a couple of funny Scottish pieces and more manic dancing. Great entertainment!
Next was the turn of the excellent harpist, Celine Saout, who then accompanied Hayley on a superb performance of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Next came the Mummers Dance, and it was in this song that my attention was really drawn towards Fiona’s energetic playing. (I’d love to get a recorded version of this song if anyone knows where I can still get it – I believe it was on the Wal Mart version of Celtic Treasure).
When introducing Santa Lucia, Hayley mentioned that she hasn’t seen much of Italy, but went to Sicily once. She mentioned that maybe she should do some concerts in Italy.
Nicky came back onstage for some duets and there was great banter between the two of them, but seriousness when the singing started. He asked whether there was a duet from LOTR for them to sing! The duets worked really well and Hayley and Nicky’s voices complemented each other very well. I could imagine that West Side Story would have been better with Nicky taking the part Vittorio played.
The finale to the set list was Hine, which was a great performance as ever. That was followed by flowers all round, before Hayley started her encores. She sang the first note of Pokarekare Ana and the crowd burst into a round of applause – obviously the song is a favourite in Jersey and the one they had been waiting for. Interestingly this was the first time I had not seen it on the main set list. I also overheard someone on the rows behind saying that she was much better than last time they had seen her in Jersey. The evening was then rounded off with Sonny.
There was no official signing afterwards, so I met David back in the lobby and we waited. Apparently, in Jersey it seems that artists don’t generally come out to sign at the opera house and the crowd don’t expect anything so disappear very quickly. This left a few of the families of the choir girls to pick up their daughters and a few fans.
An older gentleman wanted his picture taken with Hayley with his phone. I did my best to oblige but struggled with an unfamiliar model. Hayley then tried herself (several times!) with the phone – I’ll post my photos of this later. Anyway, suffice to say he was impressed enough and I saw him back at the concert the next night!
Saturday to follow (a much briefer report).
My camera just can't cope 
