Review - A Night with the Phantom

“With one look, I can break your heart, with one look I play every part...when I speak it’s with my soul, I can play any role”.
These words were sung by the character Norma Desmond in the musical Sunset Boulevard and whilst it was not one of the songs performed in the concert, it certainly epitomised the characteristics of the performer.


Ramin Karimloo, famous for his roles in Phantom of the Opera and its sequel Love Never Dies and as revolutionary Enjolras in the 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables was for one night being himself and singing from a whole host of musicals in an evening entitled A Night with the Phantom.

I have been fortunate enough to see Ramin perform in Love Never Dies and at the 25th anniversary concerts of both Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera and always enjoy his performances. There is no doubt that he takes on the character of each of these roles brilliantly but I was eager to see how he would be minus the stage lights, make up and costumes – I was not disappointed.

Ramin performed at the Bridgewater Hall with the Manchester Concert Orchestra conducted by David Shrubsole and with special guests Olivia Jade Archbold and Celia Graham who played Christine in both Phantom musicals. For over two and a half hours they delighted the audience with songs from Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and many more well known and much loved musicals. It was also an opportunity to hear tracks from Ramin’s own album which is due for release in January 2012. If the tracks are representative of the album as a whole, we can be assured of a real treat.

What I enjoyed about the concert was not only the variety of musicals sung, but also the different musical styles performed. Ramin showed the versatility in his voice by performing Jazz numbers as well as up tempo numbers and powerful yet heart wrenching ballads. The expression in his voice and his mannerisms emphasised the beauty of the lyrics of each song and even if you weren’t familiar with the musical itself, you could feel the emotion of the piece. He has an incredibly powerful voice that can also be soft and calming and quite mellifluous. An example of this for me was the exquisite “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot which was so poignant and beautiful it gave me goose bumps. I also enjoyed his performance of “Bring Him Home” which again was full of feeling and emotion and in many ways reminded me of Colm Wilkinson’s rendition - a great compliment. It was also lovely to hear him sing “Do Your Hear the People Sing” in its native language of French – not only that, but he got the audience to join in with the chorus which was very enjoyable.

One of the hi-lights was hearing Ramin perform songs from his new album and I particularly enjoyed the song “Constant Angel”, the lyrics to which will resonate in the hearts of all those that hear it and will be one of those songs that everyone will be able to relate to and bring their own meaning to.  The show ended (far too quickly in my mind) with some of the most gorgeous songs from Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies and I was glad to see this included Til I Hear You Sing Once More. This to me is one of the most beautifully stirring and yet heart wrenching song, so full of passion and longing and Ramin manages so effortlessly to convey each of these emotions, he was a joy to watch from start to finish.

After the performance I went to stage door to try and say a quick hello and can honestly say I have never seen such a reception as the one that awaited him as he left, there must literally have been hundreds there! Ramin came outside to rapturous applause and cheers and then stood patiently talking to the fans, signing autographs and posing for photographs. Ramin is a genuinely lovely guy, extremely polite and was truly touched by all the positive comments people made. Having heard some of the tracks appearing on his album, I can hardly wait for the release and eagerly wait til I hear him sing once more.

Ramin is making one more concert appearance for A Night with the Phantom at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton on Friday 4th November - to book tickets go to
http://www.mayflower.org.uk/event.asp?show=RAMIN11

Ramin will be taking over the role of Jean Valjean in the west end production of Les Miserables at the end of November. For more information and to book tickets contact Queens Theatre, London.
Ramin’s debut album due for release in January 2012 is available for pre-order through amazon.co.uk.

For more information on Ramin see his official website www.raminkarimloo.net or his twitter page www.twitter.com/raminkarimloo

Review - Classic Brit Awards 2011

The annual Classic Brit Awards are a reflection and celebration of the critical and commercial successes within the classical music industry. For me, it is also an opportunity to see some of the greatest names in the industry perform on stage – for a fraction of what it would cost in an Opera House.

Now in its twelfth year, the awards ceremony itself has evolved not only with its change of name (formerly known as the Classical Brit Awards) but also in the areas of music it covers. Previously this ceremony had been exclusively for classical music and opera – and in fact any album up for consideration for an award had to be at last 60% classical in content – now the category has been expanded to include musical theatre and orchestral music written for soundtracks. The aim being to appeal to a wider section of music fans and hopefully make classical music more accessible.

All Angels

This would probably explain therefore, the high number of what are termed Classical Crossover artists that appeared and performed on the night. They are artists who combine both classical and popular music in their performances and who appeal to a broad cross section of the audience.

Il Divo

Whilst I enjoyed many of the performances on the evening; particularly Alfie Boe & the cast of Les Miserables, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Eric Whitacre and the Eric Whitacre singers, I would have liked to have seen more classical and operatic performers take to the stage. Last year’s awards were heavily dominated by the world of opera with performances from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Rolando Villazon, Angela Gheorgiu and Bryn Terfel which for me was a dream come true. This year, the programme appeared to be more Crossover and I feel that a more balanced programme between the two genres would have been better received.

Part of the problem within the classical music industry, at least in my opinion, is that the industry itself want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible and thereby sell more albums, but the purists within the industry want to maintain the exclusivity of the classical and operatic genres and see the introduction of crossover artists as effectively dumbing it down. It was interesting to note though, that in the past three years when I have attended, the hall has been completely sold out. This year there were still many seats available in the higher levels. Now whether this is due to the economical climate, or the fact that the awards have changed to appeal to a wider audience is difficult to say, but for me, this year it lacked the splendour and excitement of former years.

That’s not to say that the evening wasn’t enjoyable as I did enjoy it immensely. I arrived in time to see many of the artists arrive on the red carpet and enjoyed watching the reaction of both the crowds and artists as they took to the red carpet. One criticism of this would be that some of the artists didn’t spend time with the fans and yet again, the placement of the Classic Brits backdrop meant that many fans had an obscured view of the artists arriving. What I found interesting is that whilst all eyes were on the red carpet, just behind the crowds were other musicians just walking up and down almost unrecognised. I took the opportunity to talk to my friend, tenor Thomas Spencer Wortley who was attending the awards for the first time. Thomas is relatively new to the music scene but is incredibly talented and with any luck will be nominated in the Best Newcomer category next year. As we chatted we started our own alternative commentary to the arrivals on the red carpet which proved quite entertaining and if the organisers are short of people to interview next year, we’d be more than happy to oblige! I also had the opportunity to meet Gareth Malone, the genius behind projects such as The Choir. Gareth has also attended for the last four years and yet despite his huge success on TV, mingled happily with the crowds and was a delight to talk to being as he is genuinely charming and funny. He and Thomas were sitting on the same table during the awards and I would dearly loved to have joined them for I’m sure the conversation would have been highly amusing all evening.

Alfie Boe arriving at the awards.Photo courtesy of Hilary Sargeant

Gareth Malone & I watching the arrivals on the Red Carpet

My own seat though afforded an excellent view of the stage and the orchestra. There is nothing quite like the sound of a live orchestra and The London Chamber Orchestra under the superb direction of Christopher Warren-Green performed spectacularly. Indeed at times it felt like I was part of the orchestra I was sat so close, and the sound that we experience d was truly spectacular. It was also a thrill to be so close to the stage and to see the emotion and effort that each singer or performer put into their performance. You could see the nerves of some and yet also the excitement and anticipation of others. Thanks to a technical fault following the performance of Alfie Boe and the Les Mis cast we also got to hear their reaction as their mics stayed on and we heard the backstage shouts and squeals of “that was so much fun”, “amazing”, “let’s do it again”. This provided a huge response from the audience who had also clearly enjoyed their medley of songs from the show.

As mentioned before, the highlight for me was Anne-Sophie Mutter’s performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Winter).She seemed to play so effortlessly and we watched in wonder as her bow seemed to fly over the strings, barely touching them and yet producing such an amazing sound. Eric Whitacre and his singers provided a more calming and almost ethereal performance with their rendition of “Sleep”. They captivated the audience’s attention so that at the end of the performance you could almost hear a pin drop. Alfie Boe and the Les Mis cast were another triumph and received possibly one of the biggest cheers of the evening with their medley of hits from the popular musical. Alfie’s rendition of”Bring Him Home” always manages to bring a tear to my eye and that night was no exception. Their finale in which they sang “One Day More” also gave me goose bumps as their performance really brought out the beauty of the music and the poignancy of the lyrics.

The cast of Les Mis

The final award of the evening was the Outstanding Contribution to Music awarded posthumously to the late John Barry OBE. John was well known for the number of film scores he composed and as a tribute, artists and orchestra performed some of his better known tracks. Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe sang the beautiful “Here’s to the Heroes” from Dances with Wolves which was quite fitting and a perfect tribute to the man and his genius.

Katherine Jenkins & Alfie Boe perform Here's to the Heroes

The show ended with the incomparable Dame Shirley Bassey who sang the theme tune to the James Bond film Goldfinger. Judging by the audience reaction as she took to the stage, this was the one they had been waiting for. It seems incredible that this lady doesn’t seem to age and can still belt out the tune with as much power and glamour as she did the first time she sang it. She seemed to enjoy every minute just as much as the audience and it certainly ended the evening on a high note.

Dame Shirley Bassey performing Goldfinger

It seemed to be over all too soon and whilst many of the artists made their way to the after show parties, there was just time for me to catch up with the Spencer-Wortley brothers and get Thomas’s take on how the evening had gone before heading back to the hotel.

It was a wonderful evening and I look forward to next year when hopefully there will be a more balanced mixture between all of the music they are trying to promote and celebrate.

(Thanks to Hilary Sargeant for the photographs)