Baslow Choir Summer Concert 2026
Wimbledon and the World Cup notwithstanding, there was a packed and expectant audience in St Anne’s Church for Baslow Choir’s summer concert.
The theme of the concert was a selection of show-stoppers from the parallel worlds of opera and musical theatre. The first half was devoted to a few of the best known from Europe’s rich operatic treasure chest and the second half to some choice items from America’s glorious 20th century parade of musicals. As the concert coincided with the 250th anniversary celebration of US independence – it was on 4th July – it was appropriate that American music should play so large a part.
What united both halves were the exceptionally talented soprano voice and performance skills of Rachel Abbott. Rachel is well known to followers of the Baslow Choir. Vocally she not only gets the top notes without having to glide up to them but she can sing them both fortissimo and pianissimo with total clarity as the music may require. And when it came to American musicals she was able to switch, effortlessly it would seem, to the very different voice tone, sometimes throaty and sultry, sometimes jaunty and playful, that the music demanded. Her Dido’s lament (surely one of music’s most hauntingly moving arias) with its wonderful chromaticisms from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas was a highlight, as was, in its very different mood, her rendition of Summertime from the Gershwin brothers’ Porgy and Bess. In marked contrast was Maybe this time from Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret. Her Casta Diva (Maria Callas’s great signature piece) from Bellini’s Norma was another. But to select is to choose and to choose is to grade and in a performance as masterly as Rachel’s this seems unfair: all were equally good. Sometimes singing solo, accompanied only by Andrew Marples on the piano, and sometimes joined by the choir, her performance would have evoked rave reviews in the grandest of concert halls.
The choir’s performance was fully up to the mark and was more than a foil to the evening’s star performer. Choosing which items to highlight in this short review is not at all easy. Here are just four of them: The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco and the Humming Chorus from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, in the first half. And from the second half the choice falls on Horner and Jennings’s My Heart Will Go On from the epic movie, Titanic. Screen rather than stage but who cares! Whatever once’s preference, the choir was in fine voice throughout, knew the music and, as importantly, enjoyed what it was singing.
Given the occasion, the evening ended with excerpts from Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story. Fittingly, the rousing closing chorus was America, that place across the ocean for which, despite its ups and downs, we all share a deep affection.
As always, Carol Barnes’s nimbleness on the keyboard provided the all-important piano accompaniment. Andrew Marples’ skills as musical director with his informative and amusing asides to the audience ensured that the evening passed off with a buzz. And a word of praise too for Ian Mailer who designed the striking programme cover.
The evening will assuredly have encouraged everyone in the audience to make a trip to the opera house or the concert hall to get immersed in the whole of an opera or musical with all the drama of the stage and the excitement of live performance. Thank you Baslow Choir and your director and your piano accompanist for these glimpses into this other world. And thank you Rachel Abbott.
Bill Blackburne