singing – The Orbital

12Oct

By Emily BradburyNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Interview with: AbHarm

What does a day-in-the-life of an Absolute Harmony member look like? So on a typical Monday we’ll have a rehearsal with our main choir and Hardcore Harmony together; this always starts the week off on a high note!’ (Pardon the pun!). The choir is genuinely so close that friends are always made. At rehearsal, the choir learns an amazing arrangement which one of our two brilliant Musical Directors will have arranged! As you walk in, the song selected for the arrangement will be playing and you automatically feel the buzz of excitement! Rehearsals always start together as a whole choir with our fun warm-ups. After, each vocal part goes off into different sections and rehearse their part with their teacher (someone selected from the choir). Once we’ve learnt our individual parts, we all c...

19Mar

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music, Theatre & Performance

Setting sail with HMS Pinafore

Savoy Opera’s production of ‘HMS Pinafore’ set sail last night amidst a sea of laughter. Niamh Dunne did a brilliant job directing the show, successfully combining the heart wrenching with the hilarious. Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedic Operetta is set on board HMS Pinafore. The story follows the plight of Josephine Corcoran and her forbidden love for the sailor Ralph Rackstraw. Tasha Crossley played Josephine convincingly, successfully conveying the false innocence of the character. The contrast of sweet naivety with awareness of sexual humour was delivered with capability. Will Maxwell brilliantly played Josephine’s unfortunate lover Ralph. He brought to the stage the injustice of their separation. I was particularly struck by his solo ‘The Nightingale Sighed’ in which the character’s e...

23Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Raise Up Your Talents

Michele Theil reviews the Raise-And-Give Talent Show, an event raising money for three excellent charities. The Raise-And-Give society’s charity event, aptly named ‘Royal Holloway’s Got Talent’ was hosted in the SU Main Hall and allowed students and parents to see a wide variety of talents and acts. The show aimed to raise money for Action Against Hunger, Meningitis Now and The White Lodge Centre. Action Against Hunger is “a global charity committed to saving the lives of malnourished children in over 40 countries”. Meningitis Now is a global charity that researches for and supports sufferers of Meningitis and The White Lodge Centre is dedicated to “supporting disabled people of all ages”. Each charity supports extremely worthwhile causes that RAG is dedicated to raising money for. T...

28Jan

By No Comments

Sports & Socs

Sports Club Members find their Voices!

With the New Year fast approaching, Holloway’s sports clubs will be hanging up their kit and finding their voices as part of the RHUL Sport Choir, an innovative new project led by musical director, Amy John. The choir comprises a handful of sportsmen and women with little or no singing experience except their sideline chanting, to raise money for this year’s BUCS charity; Marie Curie Cancer Care. “It aims to get people out of their comfort zone” the former Women’s Football President explains. “We’re doing something completely different to raise money for charity”. The Sport Choir is already set for an exciting few months with preparations in place for a launch night, and the planned release and sale of a single after a Colour’s Ball performance in March, with all proceeds going to Marie Cu...

28Jan

By Emma BradleyNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music, Theatre & Performance

Understanding Opera; Misconception & Snobbery

In its prime, opera was considered in much the same way as we now think of cinema. So what keeps so many young people away from opera today? Two obvious reasons are the initial uncertainty of watching entertainment in a foreign language, and perception of opera being exclusively geared to a wealthy elite. However, there are more subtle prejudgements surrounding the genre, such as how popular music today is linked to a more free and casual vocal style as opposed to the vocal precision and intensity of opera. With this in mind, how do we go about dealing with the issue of inaccessibility in opera? Is it more important to have an audience who can access and experience more of the work, or respect the composer’s original opera? Taking libretto (the operatic text) as an example; the composer...