Classical Music - Paul Austin Kelly and Elizabeth Cragg

Paul Austin Kelly is 'not your typical tenor' by his own admission. Unwilling to be boxed in by the category, it is one, however that has its redeeming features. Tenor characters usually 'get the girl', I learn. I don't ask if this tendency extends off-stage, but I wouldn't be surprised, he is very charming. Despite being internationally renowned as a leading Rossini specialist, Kelly, proving his un-typical-ness, is happy to promote his other interests, of which there are many. In 2003 he set up his own children's music label, (Walking Oliver) after inadvertently discovering an ability to put music to the poetic correspondences which he had with his son when he was away from the family. Kelly also has a passion for pop and jazz music, and he will soon be indulging these loves in a new project involving singing 30s, 40s and 50s standards, live to adult audiences.

If Kelly can be described as a crossover artist, the trajectory has been, as he says 'the other way really'. He moved into opera 'through the back door', discovering that he was good at it, and that 'it would pay the bills'. But it was the dramatic aspect that drew him in, being able to play different characters on stage - 'after that it snowballed'. Tonight, though, Kelly sings Handel's Alexander Feast, (in his home town) an oratorio in which there are no single character parts but they are all 'traded around' the singers. Is it disappointing, then, I ask? 'No, its interesting in a different way', he tells me, 'you get to sing things from different points of view.' ER