Article published in Manchester Evening News 24 July 2015

THE Last Night of the Hallé Proms is as much a Manchester institution as the later equivalent at the Royal Albert Hall in London – and just as full of atmosphere – and this year the guest singer is a star of the operatic stage: baritone William Dazeley. It’s on August 1 at the Bridgewater Hall.

He’s been a favourite with Opera North audiences for many years, and among outstanding performances which come to mind for me are his Count in The Marriage Of Figaro, his Rodrigo in Verdi’s Don Carlos, and his title role in Don Giovanni – a knowing take on the role of the great lover, because he’s got the knack of portraying self-awareness as well as character.

He’s capable of turning on the charm in lighter music, too – witness his smoothie Danilo in The Merry Widow, also for Opera North.

This Last Night for the Hallé gives him the chance to sing two real operatic favourites – Rossini’s Largo Al Factotum from The Barber Of Seville, and the Prologue from Pagliacci by Leoncavallo – as well as Some Enchanted Evening by Richard Rodgers, and, in the patriotic celebrations, Stanford’s stirring setting of Drake’s Drum (a special for Spanish Armada year).

There’ll be all the usual favourites including Rule, Britannia!, Jerusalem and Pomp And Circumstance March no. 1 by Elgar, with singalong Land Of Hope And Glory. Stephen Bell conducts.

The Hallé are also appearing at Tatton Park, Knutsford, on August 2, for a picnic and fireworks concert with singers Louise Dearman and Gardar Thor Cortes, also conducted by Stephen Bell.

But the focus of music in the north west now shifts to Cumbria, where the combination of festival and summer school that is Lake District Summer Music is beginning.

Baroque music specialists Armonico Consort have a major part in the opening weekend, and are bringing their singers and orchestra for a concert of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Purcell’s Dido And Aeneas at the Coronation Hall, Ulverston, on August 1 (8pm), and following that with a focus on the lighter side of British music under the title of ‘Greensleeves’ at Carver Church, Windermere, on August 2 (3pm). Virtuoso counter-tenor William Towers sings in the first and is presenter in the second.

There’s also an evening piano recital on August 2, at Ambleside Parish Church (8pm), by Vadim Kholodenko, winner of the gold medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.