Interview with world-renowned tenor Russell Watson as he celebrates Newbury’s Magnificent Building of St Nicolas’ Church this weekend

World-renowned tenor Russell Watson comes to celebrate our church on his Magnificent Buildings Concert tour tomorrow (Saturday).

This special evening is a real exclusive, for Newbury’s parish church of St Nicolas has been chosen as one of the prestigious tour venues, preceded by the truly magnificent Exeter Cathedral, Bath Abbey, Truro Cathedral and Christchurch Priory.

The four-time Brit Classical Award winner, accompanied by his pianist, will perform a mixture of classical songs old and new, medleys from musicals and some of his favourite pieces.

Russell has sold more than seven million albums and performed for the late Queen, the Pope and two US presidents. He’s captivating to watch and enchanting to listen to and consistently wows audiences with his entertaining live performances.

Russell Watson never imagined he would someday be hailed as one of the world’s greatest classical singers. After being described by the New York Times as a performer “who sings like Pavarotti and entertains the audience like Sinatra” he subsequently released 10 studio albums, each receiving more critical acclaim than the last. His debut album The Voice shot up the UK charts where he held the number one spot for a world record 52 weeks. At the same time, Russell held the number one spot in the US, making him the first British male to hold the accolade of a simultaneous transatlantic number one.

His second studio album Encore soon followed and it became an even greater success, selling almost two million copies worldwide.

During this period Russell was rewarded with various awards, including four Classical Brits.

He is bringing as his guest Nancy May, an Essex-based classical crossover soprano who trained at the Royal Northern College of Music and has now gone on to forge her own career.

Nancy is passionate about supporting charities and has been “humbled” to sing each year at the Grenfell memorial service with the most recent at Westminster Abbey.

Click here to hear a clip of Russell singing Nessun dorma : https://youtu.be/JO1y65gi2TU

Russell Watson’s Magnificent Buildings Tour tickets are available at weloveconcerts.com

@newburytoday’s PHIL CREIGHTON spoke to Russell

This concert will celebrate the setting as much as the music and it’s all thanks to a day out.

The idea came about thanks to a chance conversation at a cathedral.

“My wife and I like visiting historical buildings and we were on a day trip to Chester,” Russell recalls.

“We decided to pop into the Cathedral.”

One of the staff members recognised him and gave him a potted history of the place of worship.

“He said to me that I should come here and sing for them. You know what? That is not a bad idea, and it was that comment that catalysed the idea of a full tour of cathedrals, abbeys and churches,” he says.

“We did it last year and it was such a success that we pretty much sold out everywhere we did it.

“It was such a hit that we decided we would run it through into this year.”

The Magnificent Buildings tour will feature a mixture of classical songs old and new, medleys from musicals and some of his favourite pieces.

September is a busy month for Russell: he will also be celebrating the release of his autobiography, Encore.

Anyone that knows anything about the singer will know that he has come through tremendous adversity.

“My life has been a string of triumphs and tragedies, there is no question about that,” he says.

“From throat operations that nearly finished by singing career to brain tumours and goodness knows what else, the 25 treatments of radiotherapy after my second tumour operation and coming back from that.

“At the time, and I didn’t realise this, I was suffering with a huge loss of confidence, and post traumatic stress disorder, after learning of the second tumour. I thought everything was done.

“I went to bed one night and didn’t wake up in the morning: it had haemorrhaged, and I was unceremoniously removed from my house by two paramedics and taken straight to hospital for emergency surgery.

“When you’ve been through that kind of scenario, it will stay with you for a certain period of time afterwards. It took me a long time to get over and gain the confidence to get back on stage and sing the big classical arias again.”

Home life for Russell is smallholding with plenty of animals: “It’s like a watered-down version of Clarkson’s Farm” is how he jokingly describes it.

“We’ve got some real characters with the animals we've got,” he says.

“We've literally got cats, dogs, chickens, we've got alpacas, we've got sheep, we've got horses, we've even got a South African ostrich.

“It's a real menagerie of varied and different creatures.

“The one thing that it does is it without question, is it keeps me constantly occupied if I'm not singing, there's never a dull moment.”

So is Russell a real-life Dr Doolittle who sings, rather than talks, to the animals? Not exactly … but he does have some help in rehearsals from man’s best friend.

“We have a shih tzu called Muffin,” he says, adding that she is sitting next to him as we speak and is his number one fan.

“When I do my vocal warm-ups, as soon as she hears me starting, she will scratch vigorously at the kitchen door to be let in, she’ll sit next to me and as I’m singing, she’ll start singing.

“I call it howling,” he laughs, “she calls it singing.

“As I start going higher up the scale, she howls more vigorously.”

She won’t be in Newbury with him, but Russell is looking forward to being in the town, and his Newbury date is proving to be popular.

“If people want tickets, they are going to have to hurry up, as the Newbury concert is selling very quickly,” Russell says.

The programme features some of his favourite pieces of music.

“Almost all of these types of venues, the big cathedrals and the abbeys and churches, lend themselves very well to the big classical numbers,” he says. “They lend themselves very well to the sacred arias, and the big hymns like How Great Thou Art.

“That's the type of repertoire that I think immediately sort of enters the fray for, you know, the set list, and then after that, you know, we've put in a few musical theatre numbers as well.

“The obvious choice for me was the Les Mis repertoire – Bring Him Home, and Empty Chairs at Empty Table works particularly well with just piano and voice.”

Singing sacred songs in sacred settings for a man of faith is something that is special to him.

“There's nothing better than when you have faith, you are singing in a place of worship and singing some of the best-known pieces that ever been written for worship,” he says.

“It's a great feeling. I love it.

“It raises my spirits like nothing else.”

Why should people come to St Nicolas in September and see Russell perform?

“I’ve always tried to produce a concert set list that takes people on a journey through different emotions,” he says.

“Some of the songs, some of the performances are quite reflective, others induce a sense of sentiment.

“People will go through a very different group of emotions during the performance and get away from everything else that is going on in their lives.

“There are a few fun moments too, so I’m hoping people will go away feeling like they’ve been thoroughly entertained.”

Russell has sung for royalty. He has sung for presidents. He has sung on television.

But what about Mrs Bloggs who lives in, say Newbury’s Strawberry Hill?

It makes little difference to the star.

“The setup, the warm-up process, the delivery and the skill are all exactly the same, and I get the same thrill for performing to the smaller audiences as I do to singing in the big arenas to 15,000-20,000 people.

“I just love performing, I love to sing. As soon as I walk on stage, the light hits my face, it doesn’t matter how I’m feeling, my spirits are immediately raised. That’s what singing does for me.

“I love it.”

There’s nothing better than when you have faith, you are singing in
a place of worship and singing some of the best-known pieces that ever been written for worship. It’s a great feeling. I love it. It raises my spirits like nothing else.

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