Classical and Jazz: Preview - Mezzo of the moment - Catherine Hopper sings with Highgate Choral Society at All Hallows
Published: 04 November 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
FABULOUS mezzo Catherine Hopper is singing with the Highgate Choral Society at its performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah conducted by Ronald Corp on November 13, at All Hallows’ in Gospel Oak.
Born in Hampstead, she’s one of the finest singers to have emerged from Francis Holland School before going on to the Royal Academy of Music.
She’s had a particularly active year, singing in the Bernstein Project at the South Bank Centre, taking the role of the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka with Opera North and Lucretia in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival.
She gave a particularly powerful performance singing the premiere of Michael Zev Gordon’s Mandelstem Setting at the Wigmore Hall in July.
The Hampstead Choral Society is likely to be in better form and more disciplined in the Elijah than it was in its sad performance of Bach’s B minor earlier this year. Although there has not been a deliberate purge since then, re-auditions have gently prompted some singers to leave or to change to a different voice part.
Also, quite a lot of good singers have been recruited in the past few months.
• Mendelssohn’s Elijah: Highgate Choral Society, All Hallow’s, Gospel Oak, NW3, 020 8883 5631, 7.30pm, from £13/cons £10