Opera singers surprise shoppers at Manchester Arndale

Published:  12 July, 2011

Shoppers at Manchester Arndale were treated to a surprise operatic performance in Exchange Court when singers from the Royal Northern College of Music took to the mall flash-mob style.

Performing ‘Brindisi’ by Verdi, the five-minute set was made to seem impromptu as one by one each of the 12 musicians and 20 singers appeared out of the crowd.   

Sarah Ogden and Andrea Tweedale, postgraduate students from the School of Vocal and Opera Studies, approached Manchester Arndale with a view to staging the performance.

“Manchester Arndale is such an iconic building and a busy public space; we thought it was a perfect venue to try out our flash- mob opera on the general public,” said Sarah Ogden. “We are interested in the way people react to music when the normal boundaries of a concert hall are stripped away. As one of the busiest venues in Manchester, we thought it would create a real buzz and is certainly something people will talk about.”

Glen Barkworth, general manager at Manchester Arndale added: “This was a wonderfully creative and unusual idea which just goes to show that shopping centres aren’t always what you think they are. Why not sing opera on the malls rather than within the confines of concert halls and theatres? It brings performance to the level of the everyday shopper and makes us stop, listen and enjoy a classical piece of music when normally we’d be rushing around getting on with our everyday tasks. We have already staged a free lunch-time concert recital by Kaleidoscope Orchestra this year, who similarly wanted to take classical music out of its normal setting, so it looks like we are fast becoming the shopping destination of choice for these types of experimental performances.”

Click here to view the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qooo0LS5er4