With Silvie Paladino in Bendigo

The choir and Silvie Paladino were guest artists at a Sunday afternoon concert organised by the Rotary Club of Bendigo South and the Ulumbarra Theatre as a local fundraiser.

As the lights came up the choir was revealed to sing their opening number What Would I Do Without My Music. Compère Drew Hopkins then welcomed the capacity audience before local member Nigel McGuckian spoke in the local language as an acknowledgment to country which translated as ‘I honour the wisdom of the Dja Dja Wurrung. We will speak words of truth and listen to your wisdom.’

Faleiry led the choir, accompanied by our legendary pianist Lorna Ogilvie, in an opening Welsh bracket of Blaenwern, Y Tangnefeddwyr (The Peacemakers), Yfory  (Tomorrow) with a haunting flute solo by Nigel and the well-known Cwm Rhondda with patrons eagerly joining in with the final Songs of Praises chorus.

Then the star of the concert came on stage, opening with the iconic You Raise Me Up before a change of pace with a beautifully modulated Memories from Cats. With her accompanist, the musical polymath David Cameron, Silvie then showcased her extraordinary range in a Rodgers and Hart medley. Love was in the air and the whole theatre fell under Silvie’s spell.

Silvie then stayed on stage to lead the choir in the rousing You’ll Never Walk Alone before exiting to more sustained applause.

Lovelorn choristers next launched into a sensitive rendition of The Rose which led into the special arrangement of When the Saints Go Marching In topped by the pre-rehearsed audience lustily singing (and repeating) the final choruses.

After interval, Terry Dalwood from Rotary spoke feelingly about Peter Ryall’s crucial role in helping to organise the initial concert two years ago. His cousin Keith said Peter’s suicide had touched many but his estate had now donated $30,000 to Lifeline through Terry. Terry then introduced two benefactors of Rotary scholarships for Bendigo Senior Secondary School students. The 2015 winner Aidan Purdy brilliantly showed the amazing versatility of the tuba in a very modern piece entitled Sonate en 6 minutes 30 by Claude Pascal.

He was followed by the 2016 winner soprano Deanna Jerman in another modern number I’ll Be Here from the musical Ordinary Days. Her bravura performance of this technically challenging and bitter-sweet song was justly rewarded by heartfelt applause.

Then it was time for the Bendigo branch of the choir to come on stage and surround their talented accompanist Liz Paton (she is also the choir’s organist) on the 1935 Cole Porter classic Begin the Beguine complete with some spirited, but very cool, percussion by some of the group.

Compère Drew followed this by mentioning that Peter Ryall’s estate had also donated a portable piano to the group to be used in their rehearsal spaces. Although an established and thriving chapter, they are always looking for new members.

Silvie re-entered to light up the stage again to sing the very appropriate What the World Needs Now. Having established there were at least a few people with Italian background in the stalls, Silvie thrilled the theatre with the well-known aria Non Ti Scordar Di Me.

She then invited everyone to sing along with her on It’s a Wonderful World – and patrons and choristers alike were happy to do so. Then on to the Dalla masterpiece Caruso, full of passion and love and superb singing which gave everybody goose bumps, such was its vocal and emotive power.

Multilingual Silvie then added Welsh to her repertoire with her pure soprano voice on the first verse of the a capella lullaby Si Hei Lwli ‘Mabi which the choir, after an imperceptible change of key, completed.

Drew gave the background for the next two Paul Jarman songs, the first of which was specially commissioned by VicWelsh. Bendigonians John Adams and Garry Salisbury skilfully and confidently made their voices reverberate throughout the auditorium in Land of my Song. This was followed by the iconic and contrasting Pemulwuy.

Back came Silvie to reprise her career-defining roles in the medley from Les Misérables. Sung with power and precision, she captivated the audience and tugged at the heartstrings on the hugely emotional On My Own. Roger Bartlett’s rich baritone voice added to the pathos with the sensitively delivered Bring Him Home.

The medley and Silvie simply electrified the theatre and the climax elicited thunderous applause.

As that died down, the choir took up the well-known refrain from Waltzing Matilda which then morphed into Silvie and the audience singing the English words and Faleiry and half the choir singing the Welsh national anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.

It was a very fitting finale to the wonderful musical experience that everyone had participated in, blessed by the superb acoustics of the architectural triumph which is Ulumbarra Theatre.

Post-concert comments included:

Good evening. I just have to drop a line to thank Silvie and the male choir for a fantastic concert. It was my husband’s birthday present and the whole concert was amazing. His day was made when Silvie sang On My Own. Thank you for making so many peoples’ lives happy. God bless you. Elaine.

What a great performance and substantial community impacts. High-level engagement via the Rotary association and brilliant and lasting positive outputs thanks to the association with the Ulumbarra Foundation. David

Nigel, it was a wonderful concert, it was good to have the local group do a number on its own. Your performance on the flute was excellent. You may be aware that the Ulumbarra Foundation will be a beneficiary of the concert, thanks to the goodwill of the Rotary Club of Bendigo South. Regards, Gordon