Popstar to Opera Star Blog Week 3
Farewell Jimmy! That can only be only be described as a Viking funeral of a performance that will live in our hearts forever.
There really wasn’t a dry eye in the house as he finally turned his back on Las Vegas, Nevada and pointed resolutely in the direction of La Scala Milan. Yes I know technically there was a lot that could have been better but to me the point was that the performance wasn’t the non-stick, slick slippery perfection of his frankly cheesy Volare last week. Don’t get me wrong, I dig cheese and as far as Volare’s go, Mr Osmond’s Volare would make my ideal ring tone.
Katherine actually went as far as to suggest that every time I walked into a room it should be piped to accompany me. But it was wonderful to see this hard-working, seasoned performer slide under the skin of showbiz and find a whole new world of pulsating, dangerously-emotional opera.
But the really big news was not the performances but the brownies. Having tantalised us for far too long, Katherine Jenkins finally came in with an Emma Bridgewater cake tin full of brownies. It brought rehearsals to a standstill as the whole studio crew swooped as one like a flock of carrion crows attracted by the whiff of Dame Jenkins' chocolately offering.
On matters culinary we all received a present from beyond the Opera star grave. Everyone’s favourite floppy-fringed, pop prefect Alex James sent us all a brown cardboard box with our own individual portion of one of his finest blue vieners. In fact as I blog, the powerful wafts of Alex’s prize-winning cheese are making me feel extremely hungry.
We’re now of course half way through the contest and the game is hotting up . There were some staggering performances - Marcella having been rather defeated by gravity with her concrete winged butterfly last week soared to celestial heights with an extraordinarily accomplished Queen of the Night cunningly accessorised by a barnet of twisted blue dreadlocks.
Bernie, who is rapidly becoming the safe pair of hands in our operatic tournament, turned in a text-book very nearly professional standard Cherubino from Mozart's hit-packed rom-com, Marriage of Figaro; Kym made a compelling but rather too posh Carmen. I wonder whether she was a bit too distracted by her fan? Whilst Darius, in the words of my esteemed, critical colleague Lord Loaf of Meatfordshire, used the medium of operatic aria to sell Condos in Granada.
But it was Danny McFly who struggled this week and ended up alongside the late-lamented Jimmy in the bottom two. I had a brief moral struggle but I decided to save Danny to fight another day because I feel he does have the potentially to show us all an extraordinarily vigorous operatic talent.
As Rolando said, the song was bringing him down but like the boy standing on the burning deck he wasn’t going to give in and although it was a very flawed performance, he used every single fibre of his being to try and turn it around.
So onward and upward, week four comes into view and the entire production team and I have made a secret pact to ensure that Mighty Meatloaf is denied the blue smarties which we hope will mean that this week he stays in his seat.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Presenter, The Sunday Spa 9-11pm.
