Popstar to Opera Star Blog Week 5
Sunday, 14 February 2010 18:53
To quote Monty Python’s Life of Brian ‘he’s not the Messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy’. If only Darius took this to heart.
He of all the popstars has the strongest conviction that success should be his. He has without doubt got an incredibly good voice and a real talent for performing. He would make a marvellously sexy Don Giovanni or a great swaggering anti-hero of 18th century big fat lush opera.
If only he would just let himself get on with the performance. I find it bemusing and rather saddening that such a gifted performer wastes so much of his rehearsal weeks with chasing his own tail and comparing himself against the other performers rather than getting on with the job in hand.
There is no doubt in my mind that he deserves to be in this week’s final but I have to say not based on his performance in the semi-finals which showed only too clearly that opera needs commitment, hours spent in rehearsal and a degree of insight to make it work.
To be fair on the lanky Scotsman it can’t have been easy focusing on Mozart’s Champagne Aria when one is quite so heavily draped in a satin-clad chorus of plunging necklines.
It is with huge delight however that we on the critics panel and on the rest of the world greeted the news that Bernie’s through to the final.
She’s an incredibly popular performer with the entire team, works unbelievably hard, is surprising, refreshingly modest about her own talent and can light the stage with a constantly seductive sequence of operatic fireworks.
She’s a grafter but also extraordinarily talented and will I’m sure prove to be the Will Young of this contest with a highly successful future in the operatic world ahead of her.
But bye bye Marcella who lit up Friday night’s with some extraordinarily powerful operatic performances and also farewell to Kym who I thought showed true star potential in her command and almost diva-esque illumination of the stage around her.
But let’s face it nothing is going to outshine what my mate Meat did on Friday night. That was the first ever time that Bat Out Of Hell has been performed live on television and what an experience - come on everyone lets all admit that one can still rock at 62.
Meanwhile the voting figures are up once again and here’s the big news, the semi-final of Popstar to Operastar on February 12th was the most watched programme on the evening. That shows that we as a nation know and enjoy quality when we see it. So let’s get ready for the final, puff up your tiaras, tie you white ties and twinkly up your tails. I for one am expecting all sorts of fireworks both on and off the stage.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Popstar to Operastar judge and presenter, Sunday Spa 9-11am
