I finally had a rehearsal with the accompanist for the WNA Gala Dinner I'll be performing at on Sept. 8. His name is Nigel Foster and he seems to be a pretty well-known accompanist. Paul Martyn-West recommended him and since then I've seen his advertisment in a few places. It was very synchronistic because on the day I asked Paul if he could recommend anyone, I was at his house and he'd given me Nigel's phone numbers and we'd moved on to other things and the phone rang - it was Nigel Foster! So I spoke with him right then and there and he agreed to do it!
I went to his house in Wimbledon and we went through all the songs. They all went well except the Warlock song "The Cricketers of Hambledon" so we tossed it. It didn't go so well in the program and the key doesn't suit my voice very well. Oh well! We decided to do another Purcell song - If Music be the Food of Love, First Version in the arrangement by Benjamin Britten. It goes well with the rest of the program and is a link to the other Britten song we're doing. This is the program:
1. If Music be the Food of Love, H. Purcell, arr. Britten
2. On the Brow of Richmond Hill, H. Purcell
3. Sweet Polly Oliver, arr. Britten
4. Bedlam, arr. Cecil Sharp
5. The Bells of the Chepe (from Old Ludgate), Charles Ancliff
6. Rhyme (from A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table), William Walton
My mother is going to help me memorize the text to these songs. If we can just repeat them over and over, I think that will help a lot! Memorizing strophs is not my forte. Sigh.
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