Looking for great guitar music?

Anyone who saw Sir Willard White as Monterone in Opera North’s Rigoletto recently will know that his bass-baritone voice, with its distinctive timbre, is still operating at full throttle. On the other hand anyone who bought a ticket for An Evening with Sir Willard White knew they weren’t in for an evening of Verdi and Wagner. The situation was complicated (or possibly simplified) by the presence onstage of the Kymaera Duo, Shane Hill and Simon James, an experienced guitar duo whose roots lie, respectively, in jazz and Spanish music and whose albums tend towards smooth jazz and Latin jazz. His programme began firmly in the classical style with Don Giovanni’s Serenade, Valentin’s aria from Faust (using the much-loved old translation, “Even bravest hearts may swell…”) and, best of all, Schubert’s Who is Sylvia?, delivered with poise and delicacy.The Kymaera Duo certainly played their part in the evening. If the accompaniment to some of the early pieces sounded a bit thin, they were soon into their stride, soloing with authority on some of the vocal pieces and revisiting their roots in three instrumental numbers, swapping lead and rhythm easily in Paco de Lucia and Django Reinhardt numbers.