Whattalife!

​Whattalife! was a most unusual musical play based on the life of Kathleen Ferrier which the BFWI hosted at Newton Longville on 24th January. This was the first event of the centenary celebrations and was attended by over 130 members who enjoyed a really good lunch beforehand. On sale were some of the celebratory items too such as chocolates, mugs and aprons: we’ll have to wait until the Council meeting for the gin and the new edition of the Bucks Village Book.

The concert was wonderful. Lucy Stevens, a contralto with an impressive list of credits for performing new work on radio and at Sadler’s Wells acted as Kathleen Ferrier and Elizabeth Marcus was a brilliant accompanist who has a very remarkable tally of accomplishments in her own right as well. The concert is on tour at the moment so we were privileged to have them perform for WI members in Bucks.

The singing was marvellous. Many of the folk songs for which Kathleen Ferrier was well known made brief appearances and little bits from The Messiah and the many operas which she had sung. But it was the manner in which Lucy could suddenly break off with some comment from Kathleen’s diary on where she had been or who she had met, or what she had eaten or bought that really amazed us. We were just settled into “He was rejected…and despisèd“ when we were told that Kathleen was going down to London to perform with Benjamin Britten and Malcolm Sargent; or we were well into Orfeo, when we learned that she had just bought a new-fangled roll-on which would keep riding up! To be able to do that switch in mid-breath was amazing!

I hadn’t realised that it was just 12 years from being discovered singing at Carlisle Music Festival that Kathleen died at 41 having sung at every major concert hall the world over---by watching the show we saw her go from being excited to be asked to sing in Silloth to appearing on stage in wartime London or Glyndebourne, to revelling in food without rationing while touring the States, and to being invited to sing for private concerts in Buckingham Palace. She remained a north country lass with a dirty sense of humour, always amazed at her success and determined to remain loyal to her friends and family.