T&T Guardian As­so­ciate Ed­i­tor Mar­vin Smith was part of a star-stud­ded cast which lit up The Kennedy Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton?DC, when T&T's finest opera singers joined?bpTT Rene­gades for a spec­tac­u­lar cel­e­bra­tion of the 47th?an­niver­sary of the In­de­pen­dence of The Re­pub­lic of T&T, en­ti­tled Clas­sics and Steel. Dra­mat­ic so­pra­no Anne Fridal sang three op­er­at­ic arias, in­clud­ing Un Bel Di by Puc­ci­ni from Madama But­ter­fly and The Lord's Prayer by Mal­otte, and touched the hearts of the au­di­ence?with her pas­sion and ex­pres­sion. Lyric bari­tone Mar­vin Smith al­so sang a se­ries of?three songs, in­clud­ing The Tore­ador's Song by Bizet from Car­men,?and had the au­di­ence in awe of his warm and invit­ing ver­sion of Some En­chant­ed Evening by Rodgers and Ham­mer­stein from South Pa­cif­ic.?Lyric?so­pra­no?Re­nee Solomon sang with sweet­ness?and?vo­cal?strength?in her ren­di­tion of Great Day, a tra­di­tion­al?spir­i­tu­al arranged by Burleigh and Gretchen Am Spin­nrade by Schu­bert, which she de­liv­ered with el­e­gance and grace.

The three singers came to­geth­er to close the first half by per­form­ing?an op­er­at­ic buf­fo ver­sion of Rossi­ni's Cat Trio,?to which they?re­ceived thun­der­ous ap­plause, en­tic­ing the au­di­ence to an­tic­i­pate the sec­ond half of the pro­gramme with bat­ed breath.?These three singers made the cit­i­zens of?T&T proud and were true?am­bas­sadors of song at the most im­pres­sive of the­atres, sit­u­at­ed in the heart of the po­lit­i­cal cap­i­tal of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. The ex­cite­ment of the evening for all in at­ten­dance con­tin­ued in­to the sec­ond half of the pro­gramme,?with Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra re­ceiv­ing a stand­ing ova­tion even be­fore they be­gan to play. The the­atre, packed to ca­pac­i­ty,?was sold?out al­most two weeks be­fore open­ing night. The au­di­ence in­clud­ed not?on­ly?peo­ple?from?the West In­di­an di­as­po­ra but?peo­ple from coun­tries around the world, anx­ious­ly await­ing the emer­gence of our trea­sured steel­pan, the on­ly in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry.?Rene­gades,?led by the ge­nius of the band's di­rec­tor/con­duc­tor Desmond Wait­he, start­ed with?three clas­si­cal ren­di­tions,?Fugue in G Mi­nor?and Air?from Suite No 3 in D, both by Bach, along with Polon­aise?in A?by Chopin.

The opera singers re­turned once more, head­ed by Fridal singing Bizet's Ha­banera, fol­lowed by?Solomon,?who sang?You'll Nev­er Walk Alone?and Smith, singing an up-tem­po ver­sion of Oh What?A Beau­ti­ful City. The singers teamed up as a trio and joined the or­ches­tra for a ren­di­tion of the pop­u­lar song?Grana­da, by the Span­ish com­pos­er?Au­gustin Lara, to?re­sound­ing ap­plause?and an ex­tend­ed stand­ing ova­tion.Mic­ahi Fe­li­cian, the pan soloist from the or­ches­tra, gave a stel­lar per­for­mance of the over­ture from Rossi­ni's Bar­ber of Seville, show­ing the dif­fi­cult tech­nique re­quired to mas­ter the play­ing of this piece. An im­por­tant break came in the pro­gramme when?Her Ex­cel­len­cy,?Am­bas­sador of the Re­pub­lic of T&T to the Unit­ed States Glen­da More­an Phillip, walked to the podi­um with a mes­sage on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of T&T, wel­com­ing all to the spe­cial oc­ca­sion and in­di­cat­ing that the per­for­mance was in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 47th an­niver­sary of the In­de­pen­dence of T&T.

More­an Phillip?al­so ded­i­cat­ed the?song You Are Not Alone by Michael Jack­son to the mem­o­ry of Ed­ward Kennedy, whose fu­ner­al was?held on the day of the con­cert. This ren­di­tion was played most beau­ti­ful­ly by the steel­band. The am­bas­sador?ex­tend­ed thanks to all who made the evening pos­si­ble, in­clud­ing the staff at the?T&T em­bassy, in par­tic­u­lar the In­for­ma­tion At­tache at the?Em­bassy of T&T, Monique Mc­Sween, who co-or­di­nat­ed the event. The evening came to a spir­it­ed end­ing,with so­ca and ca­lyp­so reign­ing supreme, as the or­ches­tra played 'Til Mornin Come by Big­gie Irie and Pint?O Wine by Joey Lewis. The au­di­ence shout­ed, clapped and chant­ed "we want more," per­mit­ting the band to re­turn with a grande fi­nale of the hit?song So­ca Ba­by, which had pa­trons danc­ing and singing along. In?at­ten­dance were many?diplo­mats and am­bas­sadors of var­i­ous coun­tries,?in­clud­ing Brasil, Chile, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da,?Ja­maica,?White House of­fi­cials?and many more, along with oth­er dis­tin­guished guests. The mo­men­tum cre­at­ed by this con­cert is sure­ly de­serv­ing of a re­peat per­for­mance.