MICHAEL DRAKE The Old Granary Studio, Raveningham

MICHAEL DRAKE

> The Old Granary Studio, Raveningham

This recital on Saturday brought together young soprano Bibi Heal and piano accompanist and her vocal coach Jonathan Papp in a wide-ranging programme broadly based on troublesome women of song and opera.

Heal began powerfully, setting the sort of take-it-or-leave-it attitude of her characters, although initially the rather dry acoustic was not especially sympathetic for the first group of love songs. But she settled next into a trio of Mozart arias with great sensitivity and became really impassioned as the waters crashed in Liszt's Die Lorelei.

She is a personable young woman and added delightful introductions - an attribute not all singers have.

Puccini's Muzetta, the arch-minx, brought out Bibi The Vamp and she did pretty well too as Strauss's Adele.

A final, more relaxed group had a different intensity but was just as enjoyable, with the haunting Summer Time, a beautifully performed encore, to complete a long programme of well-paced and colourful singing.