Kingdom 2007Dundee Choral Union
Read more about the opera Kingdom
2007 was the year when the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth was marked. Performances of his major works duly took place up and down the country. This rendering of The Kingdom was of remarkable quality. The choir was on excellent form, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera clearly enjoyed discovering a work, indeed a composer, they rarely came across, and the Caird Hall acoustic, underpinned by the excellent restored organ, brought everything together.
Of the soloists, Patricia MacMahon should have special mention. She had made her debut, still a student, singing this part at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh some forty years before. It immediately became her favourite role in oratorio, and she went on to sing it at successive performances in Dundee in 1972, 1994 and now in 2007. Already for many years a highly regarded teacher at the RSAMD in Glasgow, this evening, with her voice sounding as ethereally beautiful as ever, marked her retirement from performance.
