Last night, Hilary and I went, for the first time, to the Fingask Follies. This event takes place at Fingask Castle near Rait, every year and is organised by Andrew and Helen Threipland who own the castle and live there with their family, and who are also members of the congregation of All Saints’, Glencarse.

The genre of the show is basically that of a musical revue based loosely on a theme. This year, the theme is ‘Heavenly Bodies’ and the entertainment is provided by a group of young, and not so young, but all very talented performers and what was offered at different points in the evening was variously funny, confusing, mildly disturbing and a little moving.

The evening started with a champagne reception in entrance area of the castle. We then adjourned upstairs to the Drawing Room for the first Act of the performance. Then it was off to the ‘Pavilion’ (a sort of ‘function room’ in the castle grounds) for our picnic dinner – provided for our party by Lorne, our organist at All Saints’, and very nice! Then it was back to the Drawing Room for the second act – the audience now somewhat more lively, having consumed a substantial amount of wine at dinner. Finally, after Act 2, we had pudding wine and coffee to complete the evening.

One of the high, if slightly painful, points for me was when the soprano sang Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria (Der Hölle Rache from the Magic Flute). The Drawing Room at Fingask is not particularly large and I was sitting on the second row. You can perhaps imagine how loud those high notes sounded from five feet away. When she went for the top F I could probably have reached out and grabbed her tonsils!

Here it is, sung by Opera Singer Sandra Partridge.

Powerful stuff and, all in all, a great evening’s entertainment!