"A Night at the Opera" Concert

The College was delighted to welcome back the Crosswinds ensemble on Monday 3rd July, following their very popular previous woodwind concerts, in the beautiful surroundings of the Pusey House Chapel, thanks to Pusey House colleagues. The concert was the innovation of one of the Crosswinds, Dr Nick Jones who is a Junior Research Fellow at St Cross. The audience of over 100 attendees enjoyed hearing the Crosswinds play a lively one-hour programme of operatic arias. The programme featured woodwind arrangements of several well-known melodies from Mozart's operas as well as from Bizet's Carmen. Particularly mesmerising was the bassoon duet version of "Der Hölle Rache", the Queen of the Night's powerful aria from The Magic Flute, normally sung by a coloratura soprano. The evening ended with a rousing performance by the whole ensemble of the Overture to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

The full programme is below:

Don Giovanni – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged J. Triebensee)
Overture
Madamina, il catalogo è questo
Batti batti, o bel Masetto

Variations on ‘L´a ci darem la mano’ – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged L. van Beethoven)

Carmen suite – Georges Bizet (arranged D. Walter)
Introduction
Habanera
Seguedille
Les Dragons d’Alcala
Entr’acte
Les Toréadors

Der Hölle Rache – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged H.-P. Vogel)

The Marriage of Figaro – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged J.N. Wendt)
Sull’aria...che soave zeffiretto
Non più andrai
Overture

The Crosswinds are Oxford-based and started life as a woodwind quintet, but quickly expanded to a nonet in order to take on rarely performed works for larger ensembles. The players have featured in musical groups in Oxfordshire, in Bristol and in Kent.