If the classics of musical theatre and standards of yesteryear whisk you away to memorable times in your life, then Cessnock Leagues Club is the place to be this Sunday.
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The club will play host to a beguiling show – Pure Imagination – that will see pianist Michael Harvey and Australian-Italian tenor Gaetano Bonfante take a walk down memory lane with some of the most iconic songs ever written
Michael said that the show will traverse quite a bit of musical ground, offering up renditions of such musical theatre torch songs as Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, Summertime from Porgy and Bess, and Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific.
He added that Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban fans would also be in for a treat.
The duo will also offer up stunning renditions of the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory hit Pure Imagination, medleys devoted to Billy Joel and Elton John and much more.
“The show really is about going back to those great songs and offering our interpretation on them,” he said.
“Aside from the great music there will also be a fair dose of humour in there and we will also have visual presentations that will reflect the feeling of the songs.
“It’s a fun show and we hope people walk away with a sense of warmth.”
No stranger to the lure of the stage, Michael has worked with the likes of Julie Anthony, Rob Guest and Peter Allan as well as being the conductor and director of Chanel 7’s Carols in the Domain for 12 years.
Gaetano, meanwhile has performed and studied in the US, Shanghai, Verona and Venice.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Music from the Victorian College of the Arts, Gaetano has since performed the likes of Tosca, Parsifal and La Boheme with Opera Australia.
Michael said that the seeds of this show were sewn when he first met Gaetano as a student.
“I was a director at a performing arts college and he came to us as a student,” Michael explained.
“After he graduated, he went on to the Victorian College of the Arts and we started doing a few shows together. We then decided to do an album together which we called Pure Imagination and much of the show that you will see comes from that album.”
So what is it about those songs that still resonate with people after all these years?
“I think when people hear these songs, they are taken back to a particular time in their life and the memories attached to that time,” Michael said.
Pure Imagination will be on at Cessnock Leagues Club on Sunday 21 October from 3pm.
For more information, phone 4993 2655
