`How can we sing with that smell?" asked Julie Cowan, soprano supreme with the Castleward Opera Society as she warbled her scales in the unlikely setting of a Belfast fish and chip restaurant.
Cowan was worried that the appetising whiff of Harry Ramsden's famous fast seafood would prove too much of a distraction when she and her fellow kimonowearing singers performed Three Little Maids From School. Thankfully, part of the deal carved between the restaurant and the opera society allowed the hungry performers to sample the stuff later on. Singing for their supper, so to speak.
Welcome to the tasty world of "chippopperetta". For one night only Northern Ireland's largest opera group had temporarily swapped its more conventional stomping ground of Belfast's Grand Opera House and, occasionally, Stormont Castle for a slice of a la carte entertainment down at the local chipper.
The venue was not entirely inappropriate. Harry Ramsden's, after all, is a posher fish-and-chip experience. It's a place where you order from individual menus and staff serve the food to your table wearing old-fashioned black and white uniforms. Not content just to dish up food, the folk at Ramsden's are fiends for anything themed, and recent events held there include a Fawlty Towers Valentine's supper as well as Murder Mystery Evenings.
But when The Irish Times visited, it was Mozart not Manuel who was adding spice to the menu. One of the starters consisted of cod and chips with a side order of Carmen, and compere for the evening was Noel Thompson, some-time baritone with Castleward Opera and BBC Northern Ireland's news anchorman. "Opera has a reputation of being stuffy and uppercrust, all pearls and twinsets, but it started out as a popular entertainment for the people, so performing in a chip shop is not as strange as it might seem," he explained, adding that he had never been in a chipper with carpets before.
Thompson introduced each piece with the authority of a buff while speaking in a language even the uninitiated could swallow. Carolyn Dobbin (28) - who, in addition to possessing an impressive set of lungs, is a ringer for Catherine Zeta-Jones - performed one of many vocal highlights of the night. Wearing a shawl and a scrap of a peasant dress, she hopped up on the bar to serenade diners with Seguillda from Carmen. "Basically, it's a song of seduction," the Carrickfergus woman with flashing eyes explained. The audience certainly looked convinced as she finished her performance and skipped off in the direction of the rest rooms. Thompson loosened his tie and muttered, "I hope she does a takeaway". It was that sort of evening.
Earlier, men in bright shirts and women in sequinned evening dress rustled sheet music and walked around the booths beside the bar which passed for backstage. Musical director Michael McGuffin explained what exactly had possessed him to take the opera to the chip-munching masses.
"It was an approach from Harry Ramsden's to the company for us to come and give their customers some opera with their chips," he said. "We would normally sing in the Opera House or in Stormont, so this is very different. We think it's a good opportunity to introduce opera to more people and to show that it's not as formal as they might think."
It is almost impossible to appear formal while eating mushy peas and chip butties smothered in ketchup, so nobody really bothered. At one table, a group of four women who have known each other since primary school giggled delightedly and, with a nod to Gilbert and Sullivan, referred to themselves as the four little maids from school. At one point the restaurant manager was brought in to flirt with one of the performers, and during You'll Meet Me at Maxim's from Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, the Castleward women postured and preened around the restaurant as though it were the hottest night spot in gay Paris.
Musical gourmands Beth and Charles Maginness of Holywood, Co Down came dressed in antique clothes, leaving their 1953 Mayflower parked outside. "The perfect night," said Beth with a smile. "Gorgeous chips and lovely music."
Afterwards, Castleward's artistic director, Ian Urwin, declared the musical experiment, sold out weeks before the event, a success. "It gave us a chance to introduce ourselves to the customers of Harry Ramsden's, and we are looking forward to performing there in the future," he said.
And the group will be back at the end of March for a night of "Songs from the Shows" for those who fancy a little Lloyd Webber with their chips.
Castleward Opera Society will be performing "Songs from the Shows" on March 28th at Harry Ramsden's. For more information call Castleward Opera Society on 048-90661090. Book early as places are limited.