Arts & Entertainment
Blake in a field of their own with harmonies Blake will perform at a concert being held at The Deer Park, Stock Gaylard, Kings Stag, on July 24. Award-winning soprano Camilla Foster Mitchell, born and bred just outside Cheselbourne, and daughter of farmer Giles Foster Mitchell, will feature alongside Blake’s lead vocalist Ollie Baines, whose godfather John Sunnucks lives in Child Okeford. The open air picnic concert will also feature the Piccadilly Strings – Dorset musicians who have played
NOVEL: Shaun Leavey LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Blake are at Kings Stag in July
with many of the UK’s top orchestras and recording sessions – and the hugely popular Blackmore Vale Brass quintet Since coming together in 2007 Britain’s number one harmony group Blake have had enormous success throughout the world with
over a million albums sold. From Lloyd Webber to Puccini, Sting to Mancini and songs from musicals and films there will be music for everyone. Gates open at 6pm, and the curtain rises at 7pm. Tickets at £40 a head are available from
Carmen see this concert: if you’re not too Bizet, that is Concerts in the West are bringing Creating Carmen, a new concert/play by Clare Norburn to three venues in July. On Friday, July 23 it will be at Bridport Arts Centre at 11.30am and then Ilminster Arts Centre at 8pm, then at The Dance House in Crewkerne at 7.30pm the following day. Bizet’s opera Carmen of 1875 is probably the most well-known opera for a fiery and colourful story. The opera is based on part of a novella titled Carmen written 30 years earlier by the French writer, Prosper Merimée. Creating Carmen is a concert-play created by award-winning writer Clare Norburn for Carmenco, a group which features Andrew Massey and Francisco Correa (guitars) with Emily Andrews (flute and mezzo-soprano). Nicholas Renton directs. Prosper Merimée led a colourful and rakish 70
CREATIVE: Creating Carmen is at three venues in July
existence with numerous love affaires of a dubious nature. This concert-play imagines how Merimée’s wild escapades gave rise to one of the most infamous femme fatale characters of all time. Go to concertsinthewest.org for more info and to book. Tickets: evening concerts: £15; Bridport: £12 (optional donation at all the concerts) Ilminster only: There will be suppers available before the
concert at 6.30pm - £18 per head – Sue Foreman of Somerset Kitchen (book by July 19). The bar will be open before the concert and during the interval for drinks. IAC & town parking & car parks. Disabled access to the concert. Students with a card: £5. FREE entry for children aged 12 and under when accompanied by a paying adult.
Tales of the desert from soldier turned novelist Sherborne resident Shaun Leavey has written a novel called The Camel Killer, in which the central character is a young Arab officer serving alongside British troops in the 1960s. It draws on Shaun’s own time as a young officer in Aden and South Arabia, his subsequent visits back to the Yemen (and to Eritrea) as well as family connections in Northern Ireland. Shaun (pictured above in South Arabia) said: “The novel seeks to tell the troubled story of the British Army’s latter years in Aden and South Arabia through the eyes of an Arab officer. It will come as little surprise to anyone who was a serviceman that the book includes some language that may make it unsuitable for – say – anyone of less than teenage years.” The novel has been privately printed. For every copy sold Shaun will be donating £5 to organisations (MSF and UNICEF) relieving famine in the Yemen. The sale price of the book including postage is £12. To order email s.leavey@btinternet.com giving your name and full address.
