Arts Diary: Cardinal to get down and dirty with a rendition of the ever popular Hippopotamus Song

Published on Wednesday 9 June 2010 21:27

AMID the slew of shows unveiled at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this week is one almost guaranteed to make a splash.

On Saturday, 28 August, Cardinal Keith O'Brien takes the stage for what must be a Fringe first. He will sing The Hippopotamus Song, by Flanders and Swann, at a concert with Edinburgh's own Really Terrible Orchestra (RTO).

The concert takes place in St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral in Broughton Street, which will be celebrating the cardinal's 25th anniversary this year.

"I must say that over my 45 years as a priest and 25 years as a bishop, I have not, ever before sung The Hippopotamus Song in our Metropolitan Cathedral" he said. There has been some concern over the effect on his predecessors, buried under the cathedral's main altar, but the RTO insists they will not be "turning in their graves".

The RTO, the awfully amateur and painfully funny orchestra founded by Alexander and Elizabeth McCall Smith in Edinburgh 15 years ago, has a history of guest soloists. They have included a Royal Air Force Wing Commander, a judge and Major General Euan Loudon, chief executive of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Loudon sang I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General, from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. The cardinal's offering is of course famous for its chorus: "Mud, mud , glorious mud".

The RTO's music director, Richard Neville-Towle, said the Cathedral had offered to waive the orchestra's normal charges if they were allowed to incorporate the concert in their anniversary celebrations.

"It seemed a naturally courteous gesture to invite him to join the concert, and I heard that he is a fine performer amongst friends," said Mr Neville Towle. "This was his choice, but we have managed to adapt the words to make it appropriate to him and the event." He was not sure of the cardinal's vocal range, but hopes it will be a "rich baritone".

The RTO staged a triumphant visit to New York last year, and part of the proceeds of the Fringe show could go towards a future foray to Australia, it is hoped.

The concert is set to include singalong favourites like the Grand March from Verdi's Aida, as well as Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, in which noted musical philanthropists Carol Hogel and Harvey McGregor will man the pianos.

High ambition

THE Fleming Collection of Scottish art in London, known for staging exhibitions ranging from the works of the Scottish Colourists to the cream of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to contemporary painters, is to hold the first selling show in its history.

The Scottish Summer Exhibition runs from 16 June into September, with new works by artists such as Paul Chiappe, Kenny Hunter, Will Maclean, and Briony Anderson.

Anderson, who works at the Fleming Collection and edits their Scottish Art News magazine, was born in Aberdeen and studied at Edinburgh College of Art, is also staging her first solo exhibition in London, at the Picadilly Arcade.

The exhibition includes delicate, abstract landscapes. Anderson's exhibition Studies For Raeburn showed at the Edinburgh Art Festival last year.

The Fleming Collection keeper, Selina Skipwith, is barely back on her feet after breaking an ankle during a fund-raising parachute jump. In the second flight of the "Booby Birds", launched here last year, 14 women raised about 250,000 for a breast cancer charity.