For the last years the first evening of the year has been a busy one for the Gaulitanus Choir. This recurred on January 1, 2020, when the choir presented the 8th edition of A New Year’s Toast. Held at the Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz, the very well-patronised event was supported by the Kempinski Hotel, Bank of Valletta and Playpen.
Artistically and musically director by the choir’s founder-director Colin Attard, the chosen programme consisted of five varied sections. The first was devoted to a cappella choral works including Malcolm Sargent’s arrangement of the famous Negro Spiritual “Mary had a baby”, Theofdore Perkins’s “Carol, sweetly carol” (featuring soprano Anna Bonello), and Colin Attard’s arrangement of the traditional British seasonal tune “Hey, ho, nobody home” (opened by a solo featuring debutant soloist Antonella Portelli).
The second section was a reminiscence of the choir’s three concert tours abroad in 2019, namely in Italy, Latvia and France. Hence three works in the relative languages performed in each of the tours were re-presented. These were Riz Ortolani’s “Dolce sentire” (with Annabelle Zammit as soloist) which the choir had performed at Assisi’s Basilica di San Francesco, the Latvian traditional tune “Riga dimd” performed at Riga’s St Peter’s Church, and Nicolo Isouard’s “Pour votre fête” from his opera Joconde performed at Paris’s L’Eglise de la Madaleine.
The third section featured four of Ivor Novello’s best-loved songs from his musicals. These were performed by sopranos Anna Bonello and Annabelle Zammit and mezzo-soprano Joanna Pullicino.
The fourth section was a foretaste of the choir’s upcoming operatic production Otello. Seven contrasting choruses from operas by Giuseppe Verdi, including “Dove Guardi splendono raggi” from Otello, “Va, pensiero” from La Traviata and “Chi mai fra gl’inni e lausi” from Aida. These again featured mezzo-soprano Joanna Pullicino.
The last section of the programme was reserved to bouncy polka-style Christmas numbers, arranged by Colin Attard. These were Sonny Burke’s “The merry Christmas polka”, R. Alex Anderson ‘s “Mele Kalikimaka” (The Hawaiin Christmas Song), and Jerry Herman’s “We need a little Christmas from Mame.
Throughout the concert, which was the choir’s second full-scale concert in five days, choir and soloists were accompanied by guest pianist Milica Lawrence.
While this edition of A New Year’s Toast rounded up the Gaulitanus Choir’s events for the Festive Season as well as the first phase of its 2019-2020 season, significantly it also ushered in the choir’s 30th anniversary celebrations.
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