Catholics and Cafes

The wonderfully named Herbert Gribble was the man responsible for the great nea-Baroque Oratory Church in South Kensington. I sing in this church most weeks with Schola, a superb school/professional choir, which has toured the World, recorded the backing music for Lord of the Rings, The Golden Compass...to name but a few. Over the last three years we have toured Italy and performed mainly in Rome. After weeks spent in the balmy heat of Italy amidst centuries of architecture and delicious smells The Oratory takes me back there straight away..maybe not the smell bit, but certainly the architecture! It is such a thrill to sing in this giant of Victorian architecture. The interior is pretty convincing in some ways, and utterly not in others. The great scultures lining the Nave are the real deal...nabbed from Italy. The Nave has three domes and these are whole-heartedly Victorian, as they are glazed...something the Renaissance architect would never be able, or probably choose, to do. The altarpieces in the transepts are again fully fledged Italian Renaissance and are also dead right and from Italy. Singing in this building is such fun and wonderful for the self-conscious countertenors among us as the choir is hidden, next to the organ, high up on the south side of the Nave. It really is lovely to be transported to the intense magic of Rome at this time of year, when the thought of warmth and being dry is almost forgotten!!

Now it is back to Hampstead to rehearse for my next concert with soprano Alexandra Kennedy. This is probably going to be in aid of Cystic Fibrosis...like our first collaboration. This old house, for so long silent, is about to get a rocket! After all this noise making I am off to the 135th Birthday party of the Criterion...