Twinning & D-Day 75
- Andrew Starr
- Jun 18, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 21, 2024
An easy to share link tiny.cc/CaenD75
Way back in early Spring of 2018, I had contact from the a Capella choir in Caen known as Veni, Vidi, Canto. This choir had performed at a venue some of the committee had been to on a visit to Caen themselves.
I spent some time approaching various venues across the city with some success and eventually we planned to invite the choir over to Portsmouth for the weekend after D-Day 75.
At this point nothing else was planned and we did not even know if Portsmouth was going to host anything, let alone what we did host.
Eventually, we had planned a weekend for the choir with at least 4 different times they could sing for the people of Portsmouth, including two large evening events on Saturday June 8th and Sunday June 9th.
Further details of the programme originally planned can be seen here
This blog post beginning with the final day and ending with the first day, is a report about what happened during the D-Day commemorations, involving the Portsmouth European Cities Twinning Committee, Veni Vidi, Canto choir from Caen and all our supporters.
Monday June 10th, 2019
This was the final morning of Veni, Vidi Canto's visit. Cllr Lee Mason and I arranged for the choir and some American guests to visit the D-Day Story, a very apt final visit before their return to Caen.
Many thanks to Felicity Wood and the staff of the D-Day Story for their warm welcome and allowing them to perform an impromptu mini concert in the museum.
Here is the choir performing 'Sur le pas des mendiants' at the D-day Story on Monday June 10th, 2019...
Here they are performing 'Wana Baraka" at the D-Day Story...
...and here performing 'In the Mood'
Below are some images taken at the D-Day Story that morning, including the Cane Peace Garden and Brian Kidd Way which leads off to Southsea Castle.
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Sunday June 9th, 2019.
On Sunday the choir played a part in Scott Ramsay's D-Day 75 celebration at the New Theatre Royal. You can read about some planning with the New Theatre Royal here.
Here are a few photos taken of the everyone in rehearsal and shots of the theatre just before the show started. What an amazing venue...
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In the morning the choir were welcomed to the Spinnaker Tower and had a special viewing, just before the Tower opened to the public. Many thanks to Olivia Scammell at the Spinnaker Tower and Jean Barrow for organising their visit.
Video footage of Veni, Vidi Canto in rehearsal at the New Theatre Royal.
In the mood...
Bei mir bist du schön...
Nerea I Zango Zen...
À la Claire Fontaine...
Photos of the visit to the Spinnaker Tower on the morning of Sunday, June 9th.
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Video of the choir Veni, Vidi, Canto performing up the Spinnaker Tower and at the foot of the tower.
Saturday June 8th, 2019
The Saturday evening, we had great competition around the city for events taking place, we still managed to pretty much fill St Mary's Church in Fratton with both people and sound...
Veni, Vidi, Canto were joined ably by the Fine Voice Academy, The Haven Community Choir, Miss Becki Short & friends with lots of technical support from Emmie-Jayne Atkinson, Local Vocals and of course St Mary's very own church choir.
A pdf of the basic programme running order we had is here.
As there were some children involved, there are currently no images or videos of any performance containing minors on this page.
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Videos of Veni, Vidi, Canto, Becki Short and her friends; Lauren Patricia and Seb Sharp, The Fine Voice Academy's Karen Barnett and Simon Long.
VVC - In the Mood
VVC - Sosholoza
VVC - Only in Sleep
VVC - Le Pas des Mendiants
The Fine Voice Academy - Simon Long and Karen Barnett - Time to Say Goodbye Part 2
unfortunately my phone ran out of space here... so I had to switch to another one...
The Fine Voice Academy - Simon Long and Karen Barnett - Time to Say Goodbye Part 1
The Fine Voice Academy - Simon Long and Karen Barnett - Senza Catane
The Fine Voice Academy - Simon Long - Nessun Dorma
Lauren Patricia - Adieu Notre Petite Table
Lauren Patricia - Pie Jesu
Seb Sharp - Mack the Knife
Seb Sharp - Kiss me Goodnight Sergeant Major
Becki Short - Don't Fence Me In
Becki Short - I'll be seeing you
VVC - Wana Baraka
VVC - Ned i Vester
VVC - Engel
VVC - Loch Lomond
Before the St Mary's evening concert the choir were treated to a traditional British Fish 'n' Chips supper by Cllr Lee Mason (last year's Lord Mayor of Portsmouth) photo also courtesy of Cllr Mason.
The Hotwalls Studios and their manager Chrissie McQueen had invited the choir to gather there to mark the arrival of MV Boudicca into Portsmouth around lunchtime on Saturday 8th June.
Unfortunately, there had been a major storm in the channel and rather than continue her originally planned itinerary the ship was diverted directly to Dover. So there were really few people at the Hotwalls that afternoon with all the high winds...
However they did manage to sing a couple of songs inside the ramparts...
and then an impromptu couple of songs in the Spice Island Inn...
Friday June 6th
This day was supposed to be a day of performance for local school choirs and others to perform on Southsea Common on the main stage where all the events had taken place on Wednesday. The weather, however was not on their side...
Thursday June 6th
On Thursday June 6th the actual anniversary of D-Day the committee laid a wreath on the D-Day memorial, along with many other organisations and people from around the city.
Below images of the wreath laying ceremony for D-Day 75 at the D-Day memorial stone in Southsea.
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Videos of the D-Day 75 memorial service at the D-Day Stone in Southsea
The arrival or the memorial procession...
Playing of the 'Last Post' before the silence.
Playing of 'Reveille' after the silence...
Part of the ceremony - the hymn - 'Eternal Father, Strong to Save'
The band and the veterans leaving the ceremony
Wednesday June 5th
The main event on Wednesday June 5th had no real involvement from us as it was all for the main players on the world stage. However the coverage given to Portsmouth around the world was amazing... People were seeing our city all over the world...
This video comes courtesy of a friend of the Lord Mayor (Cllr. David Fuller) who filmed him meeting Her Majesty The Queen and presenting to her the symbolic 'keys to the city'.
A truly amazing few days. Thank you to everyone involved...
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