Musical treat comes to Shrewsbury
Shropshire music lovers will see a unique musical experiment when it’s performed by Shrewsbury Cantata Choir at the United Reformed Church on Saturday (April 8).
In a departure from the norm, some of the performers will be in costume.
"It’s a new adventure," said Cantata’s Chairman, Joe Gomme. "It’s our tribute to an evening in September 1800, when Admiral Lord Nelson and his lover Emma Hamilton were entertained by their friend, composer Joseph Haydn, at the Eisenstadt Palace in Austria."
Emma Hamilton was the daughter of a Cheshire blacksmith, who died when she was three. Through her beauty and wit, she became an international celebrity and Nelson’s mistress. Haydn’s friendship with Nelson and Emma is little known. His ‘Nelson Mass’ was written in 1798 when Napoleon had defeated four Austrian armies and the Austrians feared total defeat - he first called it Missa in Angustiis, ‘Mass for Troubled Times’.
The concert takes place at Shrewsbury's United Reformed Church, at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced £10 (students and under 18s free admission), are available via the choir website www.shrewsburycantatachoir.org.uk, from choir members, or on the door, and can be reserved by emailing roger.h.terry@gmail.com.
