KINDER IN NOYE’S FLUDDE

Ringers from Kinder have played the handbell part for Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde on three separate occasions, but the recent involvement of our trio in a big-scale production in Manchester turned out to be quite different.

As part of the Manchester International Festival it was a co-production between Manchester Collective and Slung Low, a community -based theatre company from Leeds.  In keeping with Britten’s original stipulation only Noah, his wife and the voice of God (in this case Lemn Sissay, the poet, broadcaster and former Chancellor of Manchester University) were professional performers.  Most of the orchestral instrumentalists were young students from the Royal Northern College of Music, HalléYouth Ensembles, Olympias Music foundation and the Opera North Youth Company.  To say we felt a little out of our depth was putting it mildly. We were the oldest taking part by a good 30 years!  However, we were made to feel really welcome by everyone involved.

Our first run-through had been in the rehearsal rooms used by the HalléOrchestra.  A week later we were amazed on arrival at the second venue by the vastness of the warehouse space, next to Piccadilly Station, where the production was to take place.  We were shown the way through dozens of illuminated music stands, stepped over miles of cables and carefully avoided all the microphones before we could take our places.  There were sound checks for all the instruments before the final rehearsal, complete with the 180 children from Leeds who were to be the animals entering the Ark.

After a break for lunch it was time to entertain the sell-out audience.  All went well and ended to rapturous applause.  Having previously said that we would not undertake this venture again we found that working with the renowned, and very patient but exacting conductor, Nic Chalmers, had taught us a lot and the whole experience was so well organised that, this time, we really did enjoy it.