They range in age from 12 to 25 and all share a passion for opera and singing. For 30 weeks a year (school and college terms), rehearsals take place weekly and at pre-production stage, more intensively. Musicians making up the orchestra are drawn from the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, with some professional and semi-professional players. It was good to see them performing in the newest theatre, The Carriageworks, where added space for the performers and orchestra make it a great improvement on the Civic Theatre that it has replaced. I thought that Richard Pascoe was excellent in the title role. A superb baritone whose diction is outstanding, he is on stage for the majority of the production and he certainly stole the show as far as I was concerned. Running him a close second, however, was Lucy Eyre as Mrs Lovett who portrayed this cockney shopkeeper with aplomb. Lucy has a natural talent for humour and even when there were technical difficulties with the movement of scenery near the end of the first half, her ad-libs were so good that even these received a massive round of applause from the appreciative audience on the opening night of the production.
 | | An earlier Leeds production of Sweeny Todd |
Richard and Lucy were well supported by their fellow principals including Tom Lydon as Anthony Hope, Jenny Kosmowsky as the beggar woman, Alex Simpson as Judge Turpin, Sophie Pullen as Johanna and Karl Reiff as Pirelli. Although there were not many chorus numbers, these were very well performed by the remaining twenty or so members of the company. As I mentioned earlier, the opening night was beset at times with technical problems, both as far as scenery movement was concerned and also some sound problems. Nevertheless, the company battled on regardless and produced an excellent evening’s entertainment. The show was well produced by Jonathan Clift and the music, which was played to a very high standard by the orchestra, was well directed by Michael Williamson. Sondheim music is not easy to perform with his unusual time settings in many of the pieces, but this young society managed extremely well. For anyone with a love of opera who wishes to see potential stars of the future, I would highly recommend that they get to see this particular production. Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street - The Carriageworks, Millennium Square, Wednesday 5 - Saturday 8 July 2006, 7.30pm. | 
