Rich pickings from Ivan Magrì's Rosenblatt Recital

Singing at short notice, Luis Gomes made a fine partner for Ekaterina Siurina at another superb recital in the Rosenblatt Recital series.

Operatic twitchers are drawn irresistibly to Rosenblatt Recitals, tempted by the opportunity to spot exciting up-and-coming singers.

St Andrews Voices was a perfect platform for Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside to exlore the fine line between madness and genuis in a compelling song recital.

In the programme notes to the Guildhall production of Journeying Boys, writer and director Iain Burnside reveals that the original idea behind the play came from Nick Sears, the Royal College of Music’s Head of Vocal Studies. It’s hard to know whether that disclosure was a giving of credit due or a disclaimer.

Haddington’s 1815 Holy Trinity Church stands on the site of a thirteenth-century Franciscan friary. It is set back on the deceptively narrow Church Street which terminates at the Nungate Bridge, as did the dangling lives of many criminals in bygone eras. This elegantly simply venue housed an imaginative centenary celebration programme entitled “Literary Britten”.

“Bring it on”. This was the response of Nicholas Sears, Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music, when Iain Burnside sketched out his plan for a music theatre event that would almost certainly cross boundaries of taste.