W.C. Fields, Like many an upstaged adult performer, hated them. But the rest of the world has always had a soft spot for child stars.
At the advanced age of 14, Charlotte Church is no longer strictly speaking a child. Yet the tall young Welsh singer is still youthful enough to startle with the assured vocal technique she displayed in entertaining a large audience at the Point Depot last Friday.
Her age was also highlighted by the contrast between the gushing geniality of her chatty linking patter, which was generally delivered too quickly for audible clarity, and the maturity of her singing voice.
This is a wide-ranging lyric soprano with a strong lower register and sparkling, if lighter-toned, high notes. She sings with a good line and has enough flexibility to cope with the divisions and runs of Rossini's song La pastorella.
At present, everything is delivered at the same dynamic level, with little expressive colouring. But she has plenty of time to develop that side of her art. What she already has is a confident stage presence and the gift of being able to take her audience along with her through a collection of songs of diverse provenance.
Three of these were Irish: She Moved Through The Fair; My Lagan Love and Danny Boy. The rest of her shortish programme ranged from Gershwin's Summertime and Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu to Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me and Bali Ha'i from South Pacific.
The RTE Concert Orchestra was conducted by Jae Alexander, who doubled as a jokey master of ceremonies. They gave an unrelated programme of film music and popular overtures, sometimes truncated, by Williams, Rossini, Suppe and Tchaikovsky. Anuna, who performed early in the evening, were practically inaudible at the back of the auditorium and had to contend with the clatter of latecomers.