Review: With Love From Italy at Chester Cathedral

Words: Paul Crofts. Photos: Angela Ferguson/Paul Crofts/By Ambient)

On a balmy summer’s evening, We Are Chester’s Paul Crofts and Angela Ferguson went along to Chester Cathedral to experience a candlelit evening of Italian opera and popular Italian-themed music.

Staged by opera company By Ambient, With Love From Italy transported the audience in a packed Chester Cathedral to the great opera houses of Italy with a beautifully curated mix of arias from famous Italian operas and well known Italian-themed songs.

Opening with the foot-tapping Tarantella Napoletana, ably performed by the Northern String Quartet, the concert included opera favourites such as La Donna e Mobile, O Sole Mio, Un Bel Di, Vedremo, Ave Maria and O Mio Babbino Caro alongside popular Italian-themed standards such as Dean Martin classics Volare, That’s Amore and Arrivederci Roma.

Other highlights included Funiculi, Funciula and the haunting Nella Fantasia (Gabriel’s Oboe from the film The Mission). No Italian-themed concert would be complete without Nessun Dorma.

A surprise encore – Con Te Partiro (Time To Say Goodbye) – made famous by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman and performed here by tenor Sam Marston and soprano Jennifer Lee, provided a suitable finale to a fine evening of music. 

Several of the pieces were beautifully enhanced by performances from two wonderfully talented young dancers who seemed to float effortlessly across the stone floor of the cathedral. My only niggle here was that sight lines were an issue, and unless you were sat in the front few rows or in an end seat either side of the centre aisle, you missed much of their routines. 

The creators of By Ambient, tenor Sam Marston and soprano Jennifer Lee, are two accomplished and rising young stars of the classical music world and clearly have a flare for staging these wonderful events.

Their vocals soared in the historic surroundings of the cathedral nave, although I couldn’t help feeling that both they and the Northern String Quartet would have benefited from some amplification, given the cavernous nature of the cathedral.

Aside from, in my opinion, a couple of missed opportunities to make the overall performance even better, With Love From Italy was the perfect way to spend a summer’s evening.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Sam and Jennifer and their talented company in the years ahead. A glass of perfectly chilled Pinot Grigio on the outdoor terrace of Chester’s longest running Italian eatery rounded off this love letter to all things Italian – La dolce vita!

We give With Love From Italy quattro stelle. 

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Paul Crofts, July 2026.