One of our class members told us yesterday that he and his wife had attended a fantastic concert in Alicante last Saturday so I searched for information about this and found an article in the Coast Rider which forms the basis for this post.
The Royal British Legion is 90 years old this year and to celebrate in style they organised a gala celebration in the brand new auditorium at Alicante. Two performances were planned for the day the first being at midday last Saturday and the second in the evening at 7.00 pm. Both performances were very well attended with the evening one being completely full. The use of the auditorium had been organised by the Diputación of Alicante and in his address to the programme for the celebrations the President of the Diputación, Joaquín Ripoll Serrano said ‘As soon as we heard about the project undertaken by The Royal British Legion in Spain, we wanted to play our part in organising this event’. Representing the Diputación at the evening event was the Provincial Councillor for foreign residents Maria Asunción. Paul Rodwell who is the British Consul from Alicante and the District North President of the Royal British Legion in Spain also attended and read the first lesson.
Set in the wonderful setting of the new auditorium the programme had been very cleverly designed to provide entertainment, information and the recreation of a church service in the field of battle; everything being underscored with the theme of remembrance.
A host of stars were present at the event including ‘The Massed Voice Choirs’ consisting of the Coral Crevillentina, Crescendo International Choir, The English Choir, The Coral Classica Javiense and the Costa Blanca Male Voice choir all under the musical direction of Charles Smith. In front of them sat ‘Just Brass’ with their leader Gordon Higginbottom.
Apart from the Massed Choirs, providing the vocal entertainment there were ‘All Angels’, Cathy Carson and Ruth Lorenzo. Ruth will be familiar to many for her performance in X Factor. She demonstrated the power and range of her voce and her talent in Alicante with numbers from opera and popular music including one of her own compositions. ‘All Angels’ are an all-female quartet of young women who sang accompanied and a cappella. They make truly beautiful music, once again with a wide variety of material. Formed in 2006 they have already sold half a million albums. Cathy Carson has been singing professionally from a very young age she came to Spain in 2003 continuing to entertain people.
Alongside the vocal entertainment, the Torrevieja Pipes and Drums marched on stage looking extremely smart to fill the hall with the sound of the bagpipes and some sterling drum work.
Current battlefields were brought into sharp focus with the attendance at the celebrations of two serving members of the Armed Forces back from a tour in Afghanistan and one man, Lewis Elliott, who lost his leg whilst serving in Afghanistan.
The Drumhead service is the name given to a church service held in the field and the name comes from the use of drums draped with flags and standards to form an altar. Prayers for this particular service recreated in the auditorium in Alicante were led by representatives of churches of different traditions, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican all coming together to pray for governments to restrain evil and oppression, those in the armed services truly serving the cause of justice, freedom and peace and for the work of the Royal British Legion for enhancing the lives of those who depend on them. Showers of paper red poppies were thrown from the balcony of the auditorium in remembrance of all those who have given their lives in the cause of freedom. This was followed by the well-known lines from Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘The Fallen’.
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old……
Now I understand why our classmate said that he thoroughly enjoyed the event.
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