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Thank you to everyone who joined us for an evening of opulence and opera at the fabulous Bel Canto! 

Greeted by our favourite host and hostess from Esprit as well as the tirelessly efficient team at Outstand who supplied the badges, guests were treated to delicious food and truly world class entertainment from the venue whose intimate and theatrical setting includes incredible opera singers as part of the waiting staff! 

Another thank you goes to Sound by Design who provided the PA for our speakers Will Broome President of ISES UK and Duncan Reid Director of Confex who would not have had quite the same voice projection skills as our opera singers!  Thank you to Revelstoke for their fantastically generous contribution of wine month by month, Aubergine Event Staff for the additions to the waiting staff, and 1Vis for the fabulous photo memories of the evening.

The venue have very generously offered all ISES members and their guests from this month's event a fantastic 25% discount on all meals at the restaurant before the end of March 2009- do not miss out!

To view more photos of this event click on the 1Vis logo below: Log in: ises Password: rsvp

How To Get There:

Bel Canto
Mark Lane
off Fenchurch Street
London
EC2R 7AA

The nearest tube station is Monument tube station.  Click here for walking directions.  Alternatively, you view the Bel Canto website for further details.



Read an article from The Guardian:

Mozart for mains, Puccini for pudding

Avocado and crab tian, followed by pan-seared pheasant would you like some Mozart with that, madam? Or a side order of Rigoletto?

At the newly opened Bel Canto restaurant in the City of London, diners are entertained during the evening by opera singers, mostly students from the nearby Guildhall music school or the Royal College of Music, who take their turn serving at table between their solos or ensemble pieces.

If the idea of singing students at your table sounds off-putting, be assured they are very good, auditioned personally by the owner of the restaurant, Jean-Paul Maurel, who exported the idea from his two successful Paris venues to tap into the high quality of musical talent being nurtured in London. (You can judge for yourself by listening to our podcast on EducationGuardian.co.uk)

Like two of the students I heard last week, New Zealand-born soprano Carleen Ebbs and tenor Tyler Clarke, performers at Bel Canto are in the difficult territory of having completed music masters degrees and continuing to study while trying to get a toehold on the extremely competitive career ladder. For them an evening singing there is not only a welcome bit of income but a chance to perform in front of a live audience. Very close to a live audience, too the effect is startling if, like me, you've only ever heard opera on a distant stage.

For the students it is also a chance to sing the lead in big arias rather than be consigned to the chorus. And they are listened to in silence, not treated as background music. The musical menu is reassuringly mainstream Carmen and the Marriage of Figaro, rather than anything indigestible from the 20th century.

The singers are only too conscious that the credit crunch can make the difficult world of opera even harder to storm. And is London's battered financial centre the best place for this new venture? To which Maurel gives an expressive Gallic shrug. We're not a bank - people have to enjoy themselves.
Donald MacLeod
The Guardian