Angelic and Awesome Ali by Linh, Chameleon 2007

A former principal soprano with Opera Australia, Ali McGregor is a rare shining star in the music industry. Her beautiful voice effortlessly soaring above and beyond the high C's then plunging into the deep and dark depths of gravelly growls in contemporary music.

In her debut solo show, Midnight Lullabies with special guests, Ali illuminated the Bosco Theatre tent in The Garden Of Unearthly Delights with her sparkling personality and radiant voice. Accompanied by the talented drummer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Hendry, Ali performed wonderful renditions of Radiohead, The White Stripes , Tom Waits, George Gershwin and Hugo Wolf.

Ali began Gershwin's classic Summertime in it's original sweet operatic tone before smoothly seguing into the jazzy version without missing a beat.

Her token operatic song was to be performed with a pianist on an electronic keyboard, however due to unforeseen circumstances, she had to make a backing track featuring Len Vorster on piano. Nevertheless, Hugo Wolf's Das Verlassene Maglein (The Forsaken Maiden) was superbly sung in German, with her exquisite vocal expression bringing alive the sadness and sincerity of the maiden in the song.

The multi-talented Ali also sang while playing her autoharp, which she likes to call the zither, receiving thunderous applause and cheers following her gorgeous version of Tom Waits' Midnight Lullaby, her brilliant vibrato and sex appeal in The White Stripes' In The Cold Cold Night, and pushing her vocal abilities to its most outrageous and impressive boundaries in Radiohead's Creep.

In each show Ali has a special guest to share the stage, and on this occasion it was the affable comedian Adam Hills. Adam recited Banjo Patterson's Clancy Of The Overflow by memory, accompanied by Ali on zither as she sang The Church's Under The Milky Way Tonight. The result was a stirring blend of well performed prose and soothingly harmonious singing.

Ali McGregor is a consummate performer whose voice is refreshingly flexible, ravishing in operatic or contemporary mode, and her energy and enthusiasm makes her a joy to watch.

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