BURNS NIGHT
Tuesday 27th January 2023
An army chaplain, a mezzo soprano, and a piper walk into a gent’s club…Not the start of a bad joke but the preface to a tremendous Burns Night at The Rag.
Some divine intervention from Reverend James McWhirter after he had delivered the night’s Selkirk Grace might well have been needed to preserve infrastructure on the corner of St James’s Square and Pall Mall. The occasion’s La Divina, Rozanna Madylus, was fresh from a debut the night before at the Wigmore Hall, which the Evening Standard newspaper considered a performance of such commitment – and no little excellence – that the rafters were shaken. Add in Lawrence Bissell’s bagpipes, which he had brought down from Edinburgh and where, when not building satellites, he adds an inspirational soundtrack to the odd military tattoo, and there was good cause to have a structural engineer at hand.
Lawrence piped in and then addressed the night’s haggis with native panache ahead of Rozanna producing wobbles to even the most stoic veteran’s upper lip with a tender rendition of “My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose”. After this, even those who consider Burns as guttural would surely accept him as heartfelt. All the more so after the night’s pipes and voice came together for “Auld Lang Syne”.
Rozanna is part Ukrainian. Among many who well understand the toll of war, this was an opportunity to herald those fallen by including them in the traditional toast to the immortal memory of Burns, delivered by Colin Cameron, the evening’s host. Likewise, a chance to read some poetry from Taras Shevchenko. The line from his “The Testament” – Oh bury me, then rise ye up, And break your heavy chains, And water with the tyrant’s blood, The freedom you have gained – with words that resonate today as much as on publication in 1859. The traditional toast to the lassies from the laddie, delivered again by the night’s host, borrowing these lines after Rozanna had brought the room to its feet would have been after the Lord Mayor’s Show without this writer, father of the modern Ukranian language.
Some rose – of course – hibiscus and congu fusions from The Tea Keepers – will have since helped restore Rozanna’s voice, with a Johnstons of Elgin scarf to keep away colds that are a curse to such a gift. Gloves from Elgin will keep the night’s piper playing in even the coldest weather.
Prizes from Johnstons for the best dressed man – troos in family livery trumped the kilts – and lady who used Scottish hues the most imaginatively were as rapturously received as the evening’s musical dimension. Tartan earrings were enough to claim the spoils. They along with the shell-likes of everyone reverberated on what was a special night of Cale-Ukranjian pomp.
https://www.rozannamadylus.com, https://www.teakeepers.com, https://www.johnstonsofelgin.com/retail/
