TAUNTON's own 10 day arts festival kicks off today (Friday) with two fantastic Mozart concerts at St James Church, featuring some of the most exciting classical musicians around.
Top of the list is Oliver Gooch, Assistant Conductor from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, who is being hailed in the music world as the next Simon Rattle.
He will be conducting OrchestraWest, Taunton's own professional symphony orchestra, in two programmes of Mozart symphonies, concertos and the rarely-performed but wonderful one-act opera, The Impresario.
His chamber ensemble, The Pepys, who will be giving a concert of Mozart quartets and quintets on Tuesday August 1.
Oliver's operatic stars for The Impresario are Fflur Wyn, a member of Welsh National Opera, Rebecca Cooper and Matthew Smith.
This opportunity to see and hear singers of such quality in The Impresario, which for some unaccountable reason is rarely performed, is a real coup for the Taunton Music Trust and the Westival as an event.
It will be sung in English, which will allow the audience to appreciate fully the wonderfully comic libretto, set to what one might call 'vintage Mozart'.
The Director is Martyn Harrison.
Tickets and full details for all Westival events are available through The Brewhouse box office.
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