Hearts Made Great
London Free Press REVIEW of Hearts Made Great
By JAMES REANEY, FREE PRESS ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST
Sat. November 12, 2005
If you can't go tonight, go tomorrow afternoon or both.
One of the finest ways Londoners could ever salute the Year of the Veteran is on the stage at Centennial Hall this weekend.
Based on yesterday afternoon's presentation, Orchestra London's Hearts Made Great -- a fictional London region family's wartime saga in words and music, new and old -- is not to be missed. If you can't go tonight, go tomorrow afternoon -- or both times.
The music by composer and conductor Jeff Christmas and words by UWO grad Jennifer Venner call up a Remembrance Day universe of emotions -- sorrow, pride, fear, patriotism, hope and relief among them.
Hearts Made Great fulfills the ambitions of the orchestra's partnership with two London singers, Jo-Ann Lawton and Donna Creighton, two of Hearts Made Great's stars this weekend, and folk duo Sirens at other times.
Lawton, Creighton and the orchestra first discussed the idea of using music from the Second World War era in a concert setting.
Remarkably, Hearts Made Great grew into an original combination of period music from the 1940s, new compositions for the orchestra, powerfully restrained words, documentary touches and some glorious singing and playing.