Residents of a care home in Wrexham were treated to a “world class” feast of opera.
Members of Welsh National Opera raised the roof at the Hillbury Care Home after taking to the stage there.
More than 50 people from the Pendine Park care organisation, which runs Hillbury, packed the chapel to get first class seats.
They enjoyed over an hour of entertainment by two members of WNO’s acclaimed Chorus, soprano Meriel Andrew and tenor Simon Buttle.
The duo stopped off at Hillbury en route to The Liverpool Empire where they were appearing the in popular Mozart opera Don Giovanni.
The visit was part of a three-year WNO residency in the town. They are creating Nine Stories High, a soap opera which is being performed and filmed on the streets of Wrexham.
Recently, writer Alan Harris, one of the WNO librettists working on the soap opera, arrived at Pendine Park’s Bryn Bella care home with his camera team to record the first workshop interviews with residents.
The stories, reminiscences and memories from the residents helped create the first episode of Nine Stories High.
Pendine Park has had an artist in residence for 15 years and their innovative collaboration with the Hallé orchestra has won awards. Now, the organisation has been unveiled as WNO Community Champion.
Meriel has toured with WNO for eight years. She said the company is committed to reaching out to the community and making opera more accessible.
“We have a certain amount of funding to do this kind of thing. They get so much out of it. Music evokes so many emotions and memories. People who haven’t spoken for years will suddenly start to sing. It’s amazing.”
Meriel and Simon sang a string of arias from famous operas, songs from the musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and a trio of Welsh lullabies.
They ended with a rousing rendition of Liverpool Football Club’s anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone – from the musical Carousel. The singing duo danced with residents and sang directly to them.
Hillbury resident Frances Davies was serenaded by Meriel and Frances’ daughter Ann Jones, from Cefn-y-Bedd, found the concert moving.
She said: “She’s blind and she’s hard of hearing but she seems to have enjoyed the concert. She enjoys being with people and she likes company.”
Frances adopted Ann from Wrexham Maelor Hospital when she was just two weeks old. Mrs Jones said her mother has been at the home for two and a half years.
She said: “It’s wonderful that they’ve put this on. It’s lovely and a lot of the residents like to sing.”
Fellow resident Alan Hassall has been at Bryn Bella Care Home, for 12 months. He said the concert was “fantastic”.
“I really enjoyed it. In all my life I’ve never listened to Opera and I’ll buy a couple of CDs now,” the former computer programmer said.
Christine Jones, 67 added “I joined in and sang the songs it really was unbelievable. It was lovely to see something different. We’d been really looking forward to it.”
Simon Buttle has been with Welsh National Opera for two years. He said the concert was a first for him but he thoroughly enjoyed it.
“When we’re on stage we don’t see the audience. It’s great to see who you’re singing to. To be able to get down on your knee and see the reaction on their face is lovely.”
The concert was organised by Sarah Edwards, Pendine Park’s Artist in Residence for the past 16 years. She hailed the event a “huge success”.
“They were enraptured; everyone was caught in the moment. We have people here with complex conditions such as dementia but music can have a connection. We feel the arts play a role in enhancing peoples’ lives.
“Coming into a care home is not the end it’s a new start. We want the best quality of life for our residents”. Sarah hopes Welsh National Opera will return for another curtain call in the future.
Mario Kreft MBE, the opera loving proprietor of Pendine Park, was delighted that the had been so successful.
“I think it’s been wonderful for world class singers like Meriel and Simon to spend time with our residents and create something that was truly magical.”
