Nation’s favourite wine expert – Oz Clarke at Lichfield
Oz Clarke is one of the world’s leading wine experts and writers, and a familiar face on TV since the 1980s with BBC TV ‘Food and Drink’ and his award-winning series ‘Oz and James Drink to Britain’ with Top Gear co-presenter James May.
But here’s a little known fact: before wine took over his life in 1984, Oz Clarke was a full-time actor and singer.
He was a choirboy at Canterbury, then sang with the Schola Cantorum (Oxford University’s premier chamber choir), and with the renowned Monteverdi Choir.
As a professional actor, he appeared on the West End stage as Sweeney Todd and General Peron in Evita. He was one of the first criminals to be apprehended by Superman in the 1978 film, and he toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Bringing his loves together, he re-joins his musical friends, the acclaimed Armonico Consort, and returns for a third time to Lichfield Festival for an entertaining evening of music, wine and anecdotes in ‘Oz and Armonico Drink to Music – A Second Sip’.
It’s a winning formula. Oz regales the audience with tall tales of musical and alcohol-fuelled exploits by some of our best-known classical composers. They’re interspersed with musical illustrations, performed by singers Eloise Irving and William Towers and the critically-acclaimed instrumentalists of Armonico Consort, directed from the piano by Artistic Director Christopher Monks.
There’s also a chance to sample some wine, specially selected and introduced by Oz to accompany the evening’s storytelling.
Oz’s TV break came when a wine expert dropped out of the new BBC ‘Food and Drink’ show in 1984. Producer Peter Bazalgette apparently shouted, “Get me the actor who knows about wine”. It was the start of a long association with the show, which continued until 2002.
It will come as no surprise to hear that ‘Drink to Music’, like so many of Armonico Consort’s ideas, was dreamed up in the pub. “This time, you’ll discover the Brits’ role in the invention of champagne, and we’ll unearth some stories about Beethoven that will make you see the master in a way you’ve never seen him before,” says Christopher Monks. “As well as that, there’ll be wine-related musical contributions from Vivaldi, Purcell and Thomas Arne and from 12th century nun, composer, philosopher and medicinalist, Hildegard von Bingen. And, of course, there’ll be some wine to sample too.”
With the emphasis on entertainment, there’s plenty of fun and banter. “We get belly laughs out of Baroque music,” says Oz. Who’d have thought!