William Aston Hall, Wrexham
Wed 15 June
Whether you’re waiting in the audience or you’re behind the curtain, you’re all awaiting the same thing, for the clock to reach show time. With Russell Watson, there’s no doubt that there were excited and restless audience participants awaiting his return to the William Aston Hall in Wrexham on the 15th of June.
Before you could batter an eyelid Russell Watson, along with his instrumentalists had you captivated with a great opening rendition of ‘It’s Now or Never’ going into ‘O Sole Mio’. If you haven’t seen Russell Watson live before, by this point you’re already appreciating the vocal strength and talent that Russell has.
After a tremendous applause, Russell introduces the evening, the tour is entitled ‘Songs from the Heart’ and Russell began to explain what this meant to him. We learnt that Wales is one of his favourite places to visit and as a child he would always stay with his family, particularly in North Wales. It was a touching moment where Russell spoke well of his grandparents and later on spoke more of what his mother and father favoured in music. You were getting to know the person behind the voice, it’s not often you get that on stage. We were then moved by his performance of ‘Intermezzo’ from the one act opera Cavalleia Rusticana. Russell’s voice resonated through the hall, whilst the Masquerade String Quartet supported his vocal melody with lovely legato accompaniment.
Going back to his holidays in North Wales Russell spoke of when the days were drawing to a close he’d always end up falling asleep to the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel, you couldn’t help but create your own imagery of sunsets, family and memories whilst he went into his rendition of ‘The Sound of Silence’. We were introduced to Edward who accompanied Russell on multi-instruments throughout the evening and for this particular song, it was on the piano along with his picturesque vocal harmonies.
[wpdevart_youtube]JO1y65gi2TU[/wpdevart_youtube]
Russell decided to end the first half on a song that wasn’t as well known entitled ‘This is the Moment’ from the Jekyll and Hyde musical. It felt like a great concluding song, with a delicate beginning and ornamental accompaniment but with powerful dynamics that grew throughout and I do love a good key change!
The second half set quite a different tone, it was as if we a part of an audience within the West End. We were introduced to Alice Fearn (who is known for her West End performances) and The Cheshire A Cappella Choir. All these voices shared the same stage and layers grew whilst you were swept away into scenes from Phantom of the Opera. Russell and Alice’s vocal tones blended so well together, especially in pieces such as ‘Music of the Night’ and ‘The Point of No Return’, such stunning range too.
During the second half Russell’s charisma and charm continued and we were given opportunities to get more involved with his performance, from clapping along to The Cheshire Choir whilst they sung ‘Funiculi, Finicula’ to being a part of a call and response in Italian! Russell also decided to perform ‘Green Green Grass of Home’ by Tom Jones, seeing as he was in Wales. There was so much variety throughout the evening; Russell performed songs from different genres to appeal to everyone.
My favourite piece of the evening though had to be ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ from Les Miserables. There was so much passion, intensity and fierceness and Les Mis is one of my favourite musicals, he certainly did it justice. Towards the end of the evening it was clear that Russell was enjoying himself as much as us, three encores later, the crowd applauded and you were left in aura by the harmonious performance of all the musicians on stage. Russell Watson is currently on tour performing across many venues, so be sure to catch him and be blown away by his incredible classical-crossover performance.
words VIOLET YOUNG, photo KEVIN COOPER