Irons To Sing Coward At Last Night Of Proms
by Robin Stringer, The Evening Standard (London)
April 29, 1999
JEREMY IRONS will be the novel attraction at the Last Night Of The Proms this summer when he performs a medley of Noel Coward songs.
Proms director Nick Kenyon said the film star was invited because his talents mirrored those of Coward. "We felt that he had the elegance, detachment and the same ability to half-sing and half-speak as Coward himself," said Mr Kenyon.
Although Irons has sung before, he is more renowned as an actor so it is probably just as well that the climactic Last Night sing-in at the Royal Albert Hall will not be led by him. That task is entrusted to bass Willard White, who will also serenade Promenaders with Kern's Ol' Man River and Rodgers' Some Enchanted Evening.
Irons, who last sang on stage more than a decade ago, is expected to attend training sessions at Glyndebourne with Sir Andrew Davis, who will conduct the Last Night. Mr Kenyon said: "People might object to the inclusion of Coward, but he is an integral part of Britain's musical tradition and this is a way to mark the centenary of his birth."
The BBC is taking its annual Promenade Concerts out of London for the first time, this year. Regional events - in Birmingham and Swansea - are to be staged alongside the traditional concert on the last night of the annual season at London's Royal Albert Hall. The regional concerts are an extension of the Proms In The Park strand of the concerts, which began in 1996 and attract audiences of 35,000 to London's Hyde Park for a live relay of the Last Night concert. The Proms in Park concert will also be held on the Last Night, September 11.
The Proms season will include other new departures this summer. There will be a concert devoted to 100 Years of Film Music, presented by Lord Attenborough. The final programme has yet to be determined but the music will range from Walton's Henry V to John Williams' Star Wars.
Another innovation will be an Irish night with piper Liam O'Flynn and choral group Anuna, reflecting "the increasing influence and popularity internationally of Irish music".
New too will be a children's concert in Hyde Park on the Sunday afternoon immediately after the now customary Proms in the Park relay of the Last Night festivities.
Young singing star Charlotte Church is one of the promised attractions.
But Proms traditionalists need not be alarmed. The bedrock remains the classical repertoire with special emphasis this year on great composers' last symphonies.
The 105th season, which costs some L5 million, starts on 16 July with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. It ends more than 70 concerts later on 11 September.