Trinidadian mezzo-soprano, Anne Fridal, wrote to me last month. She had two wishes: To sing the National Anthem at the Steelband Finals 2000, and to escort the late Lord Kitchener onto the Queen's Park Savannah stage. At the time of her writing, the late Grandmaster was already hospitalised at Mount Hope, in serious condition, but Anne was sure that "miracles do happen."
Neither of Fridal's wishes was fulfilled as Kitch passed away on February 18, and she did not sing the Anthem on March 4, 2000. Fridal expressed that she was "very saddened by this (Kitch's illness) and quite nervous actually. I am still hanging on to a thread of hope. I want him to live so badly. I have him in my prayers."
The dramatic soprano had been known to thrill audiences all over the world with her operatic version of Kitchener's Symphony in G and The Carnival is Over . "I always included his Symphony in G and The Carnival is Over in my programmes wherever I sang, whether it be the West Indies, Europe or the Far East" wrote Fridal, who enclosed a poem she had written in 1988, which I will share with you.
"On Pegasus I ride to the bedrooms of heaven and hear the sound of tassa drums softly rumbling through the night.
" Listen! you may hear that sweet and mellow passage of moments serene.
" Silken dallions dress the atmosphere and conjure up thoughts of music and love.
" O Steelband! raise my pores to the opening skies and play delightful tunes of Mozart and Kitch, Beethoven and Birdie!
" Calypso the mood, and dance the Bele.
" If Music be the food of love, Sing on Joyously forever."
"I loved Kitch as an artist and as a person" wrote Fridal "He was my friend. I was formally introduced to him by Kelly Lourenco at races and ever since then I eagerly awaited his tips."
She reminices about the concert, a pioneer venture of the Rotary Club of San Juan, "A tribute to the Grandmaster Lord Kitchener" at La Joya Auditorium on November 20, 1993. "The day was one of the rainiest, I could remember, but the Auditorium was packed and Kitch was so impressed to hear his calypsoes in an operatic medium. The Lord Relator accompanied me on the guitar, and the audience stood to their feet. In fact I either sing the piece at the end of my performances or as an encore, so that the audience automatically rise to their feet."
Like two other Trinidadian dramatic opera singers, about whom I have recently written, Hyacinth Nicholls and Jill Gomez, Anne Fridal has sung with The Glyndebourne Festival Opera, which to quote Nicholls is "a very prestigious little opera house in Sussex, in a stately home which was turned into an opera house." Fridal's first professional engagement was in Glyndbourne's production of Porgy and Bess, singing in the ensemble and covering the role of Lily.
Fridal was anxiously living in hope that Kitch "might have lived to see Carnival 2000, or at least to be able to perform on the savannah stage again, or to write some more songs so that I can sing some of them and put them on my C.D. which I had hoped to complete by the end of the summer. It would have been great to have his voice in a duet with me, imagine the voice of opera and calypso at the same time. It would have been great."
"Kitchener's music is a revolution of melodic sound and his poetry an inspiration in the beauty of prose. As an artist I admired the way in which he orchestrated melodies for the pan (as an orchestral instrument). He experimented with the melodic line, his transpositions and embellishments, how neatly it translated into opera (both music and drama) merely by harmonising and changing the tempos of his compositions. He was truly a genius, and surely put Trinidad and Tobago on the map."
Fridal, who now lives in New York, had hoped to get four days off from the New York City Opera, and be in Trinidad from March 3 to 6, to be on stage with Lord Kitchener on Panorama Steelband Final night.
However the year 2000 is full of promise for this Internationally acclaimed daughter of the soil who returned to Israel and Egypt in the role of Serena with "Porgy and Bess" in January; went on to debut with the New York City Opera at Lincoln Centre in February; will sing a programme of jazz classics at the Cotton Club in Harlem, which will include Kitchener's Carnival Is Over and Symphony in G; will soon perform at the Opera House in Cairo, Egypt; and the Virginia Opera in April.