They trotted out Lesley Garrett to serenade the Tour de France winner with the national anthem, and the result was the best fun the French have enjoyed at our expense since Engelbert Humperdinck entered the Eurovision. Poor Bradley Wiggins looked utterly betrayed. You can watch here.
That said, I cannot endorse Rupert Christiansen’s empurpled outrage in the Telegraph at Lesley, or his newspaper’s grotty appeal to its readers to vote upon her apparent ineptitude. Here’s a smelly sample:
Her truly ghastly rendition of the National Anthem – a rotten tune at the best of times, which needs all the help it can get – at the Tour de France ceremony yesterday will not lead me to revise my opinion: she is still blasting out innocent songs in hectoring gung-ho fashion, without style, sensitivity, subtlety or charm, in the vain hope that “bubbly personality” and Yorkshire grit will make up for lack of taste or beauty of tone.
That’s not so much critical abuse as prejudicial smear against a singer who has enjoyed great popular appeal for such tours de force as this:
Lesley may be past her peak these days, but she earned her fame fair and square with natural talent, hard work and the courage to take risks and push her luck to the limits.
Her defence at the Tour de France must be that she stood up at short notice, unaccompanied and in difficult conditions.
Who, right now, could pledge head on heart to do better?
Who would you have sent to sing the Queen for Bradley?
It would have been better to just let the crowd get on with it themselves, and perhaps to have provided a wind/brass band accompaniment. The most stirring GSTQ’s (and indeed, Land-of-our-fathers, Scotland-the-brave, Marseillaise, Abide-With-Me etc etc) I’ve heard have been the ones just sung by large crowds in high spirits, without some OTT warbler leading them.
The most electric was when I just happened to be playing 1st trombone in the band for the national anthems at Twickenham, for England v France in the final match of a Five Nations (as it was in those days) for a Grand Slam which England won. 60,000+ people at the top of their voices, about 8 bars behind the band constantly, was quite something – that I will remember forever. Didn’t need no Lesley Garrett to help there!
There is not singer past, present or future who could make a musical gem out of such a dreary and meaningless dirge, designed only to polish the ego of the equally dreary and meaningless monarch. I cringe whenever it is played; even when watching England in World Cups and Euro’s I mute the TV until the ordeal is over. I do however enjoy the Russian, Brazilian and French anthems.
A bad day at the office should not detract from her achievements so far; Lesley remains a singing talent of great popular appeal and with an enviable record of stage and concert performances under her belt.
For those of us stuck with a war-glorifying and unsingable national anthem (Star-Spangled Banner) many of us long for a tune of such simplicity. I’ve never considered it a dirge, rather a stately melody deserving of the glories–past and present–of the British Empire. AND, for the record, one of my favorite anthems is that of Hungary. Simply beautiful.
The lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” are less war-glorifying than the ghastly blood-soaked ones of La Marseillaise with all that throat-cutting and breast-ripping and less ridiculous than proclaiming slobbering devotion to the dim-bulb scions of minor German princelings.
I agree with you, Norman. I’ve sung with Lesley many times and she’s a fine singer and a true pro. If she was less than on top form here it was likely due to stepping in last minute and working under less than ideal circumstances. With others out there with far larger audiences but who can’t hold a candle to Lesley Garrett’s talent, I’m very much willing to cut her plenty of slack. And the piece is a misery to sing anyway.
Lesley is not passed passed her peak by any means,she is getting better all the time,she still has a fine voice,Yes I think she was thrown in at the deep end at short notice ,she is a wonderful ambassador to the world of Opera,I should know,Lesley got me hooked on opera in the first place ,and one of her fan members,go to one of Lesley concerts, and tell me if she is past her peak,you will be plesantly surprised she is not.
Still deriving great amusement from the knee-jerk bien-pensant sneer that seems an obligatory accompaniment to any public reference to, or discussion of, our national anthem. And yet –
- it was the first national anthem in Europe, possibly the world,
- it remains one of the few national anthems to have arisen spontaneously from the people, rather than to have been imposed from above by politicians (its very authorship is unknown: effectively, it’s a folk song),
- the melody is so widely admired that the USA, Germany, and at least 8 other countries have adapted it as a national hymn (and in numerous cases, even used it for their own national anthem)
– Beethoven rated it highly enough to use it as a variation theme; and Haydn was so moved by it that he used it as the basis of his own Austrian anthem (“Gott erhalte…”)
As national anthems go, it’s the original and certainly one of the best. I find it a source of quiet pride that our national hymn has so unassuming and modest a melody; better that than some swaggering declaration of an aggressive political ideology (aux armes, citoyens!). There’s something wearyingly predictable about Christiansen’s jaded response: personally, I’m with Beethoven and Haydn on this one.
I thought he got it about right. If Bradley Wiggins had wobbled like that he’d have fallen off on Stage one.
Might be the Toure de France version of farting in the general direction of the Brits
As long as you spoil the aristocrats by paying attention to them, the aristocracy it won’t go away
It would be far more economic to do away with the queen and all that royal garbage.
Wrong. But nothing to do with you anyway, is it?
Exactly as I said: It would be far more economic to do away with the queen and all that royal garbage.
John Lydon….of course!!
Thanks Norman for sticking up for Lesley Garrett. She is a very fine singer and a national treasure who knows how to commit her personality to song and the opera repetoire. The end of the Tour de France was not a tour de force for the art of singing but Rupert Christiansen should have written his noxious piece and then pressed the delete button. He’s entitled to his dinner part views but not the oxygen provided by national press.
Thanks Norman for sticking up for Lesley Garrett. She is a very fine singer and a national treasure who knows how to commit her personality to song and the opera repetoire. The end of the Tour de France was not a tour de force for the art of singing but Rupert Christiansen should have written his noxious piece and then pressed the delete button. He’s entitled to his dinner party views but not the oxygen provided by national press.
How anybody can stand with a straight face and claim that the rendition of the National Anthem as heard at the Tour de France was the work of a talented singer is beyond me. Never having heard Lesley Garrett before, I was quite frankly appalled by my first impressions. I initially thought that the whole thing was in places up to a whole tone out of tune, and not being able to believe that anybody could possibly be this bad and still be selected to sing on the world stage, I forced myself to listen again. After another two or three painful run throughs of the video footage, I was forced to admit that the right notes were in there somewhere, hidden away deep amongst the horrific and badly overdone vibrato, although I had to really concentrate to pick them out. For the people who think that she is a popular choice, blessed with natural talent, just look at the results of the poll following Mr. Christiansen’s original article where over 96% of voters agree with the author. As for attempting to justify her performance by claiming that the was selected at the last minute and had no accompaniment, in a country full of genuinley talented musicians, neither of those excuses hold any water whatsoever. A professional musician should be able to perform to a high standard every time. She puts me in mind of Florence Foster Jenkins – admittedly Florence was worse, but at least she was funny…
I personally find the Theme of the British National Anthem very weak, & the Harmonies very boring & cheap,& the words inadequate.Not at all inspiring,but banal. At least they should re-harmonise it, but preferably replace it with Elgars ” Land of Hope & Glory ” ,or Parry’s ” And did those Feet in Ancient Times walk upon Englands Mountain Green “, I think orchestrated by Elgar. Both very uplifting & inspired Patriotic feelings in the Music & Texts ! Of all the National Anthems that iv’e heard so far i find the most inspiring ones to be the Russian ( ex Soviet Union ), & that of the ex-German Democratic Republic Composed by Hans Eisler, a very fine Composer.. The present German one ( West German ) taken fron Haydn i find unimaginative & also boring. What do you think Norman ?
You honestly ought to have sung “Rule Britannia”, that was what we foreigners were expecting