A BRADFORD OPERA
This month, poet, writer and broadcaster Ian McMillan presents his Yorkshire version of The Barber of Seville at the first-ever Bradford Opera Festival
Ian McMillan is talking to me on the move. For a fleeting moment – when I ring the Yorkshire-born poet, writer and BBC broadcaster on his mobile phone – Iimagine him sitting in the back of a chauffeur-driven limo with a retinue of PR advisers, heading to a pitch meeting with a Radio 3 producer at a north London café.
This being McMillan, however, the truth is a lot more down-to-earth. ‘I’m waiting for a bus at the moment,’ he says in his deep, instantly recognisable South Yorkshire rumble. ‘The X19 from Barnsley to Doncaster.’ Pause. ‘Hold on. It’s ’ere. Keep talkin’, though.’
There’s a short delay while he gets on board (‘I’m just going to show the driver my elderly man’s bus pass’) and finds a seat. He’s off to host a writing workshop, so is going somewhere with a purpose; although he laughs and says that he wouldn’t mind ‘being one those old blokes who just go ’round and ’round on the bus.’
Actually, if truth be told, McMillan, aka The Bard of Barnsley, hasn’t got time to be aimless, even though he describes himself as ‘semi-retired’. He’s still writing books, poems and scripts, is involved in community art work and pops up occasionally on TV (although his television appearances are less frequent these days). His ‘memoir of a childhood and the sea’, called My Sand Life, My Pebble Life, was published last year.
Anchoring all of these disparate interests is the acclaimed Radio 3 show The Verb, which the BBC describes as ‘a cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance.’ McMillan has been its host for the last 21 years. ‘The Verb carries on, which is great,’ he says. ‘We’ve got a new boss at Radio 3 (Sam Jackson was announced as controller in January), which always makes you a bit nervous, but he likes us. So that’s good. I’m doing a live version of the show from Leeds this Friday.’
It’s proof, if proof be needed, that McMillan never strays far from his Yorkshire roots. Which brings us to his latest big project: an adaptation of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, which opens the first-ever Bradford Opera Festival this month. The production features the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and Bradford Festival Choral Society, and the cast includes international baritone Oscar Castellino as Figaro; mezzo-soprano Felicity Buckland as Rosina; Shipley tenor Joseph Doody as Count Almaviva; Bradford bass baritone Julian Close as Basilio; and Ukrainian-born, Brad
