(no subject)
Guy: "I'll be Bach"
Music Geek 1: "Okay, I'll be Mozart"
Music Geek 2: "And I'll be Haydn in the bushes!"
*waits*
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!
It's my LJ. Suck it.
Haydn's Creation
This was a really neat experience, and I enjoyed it despite the fact that it took two full evenings out of a very busy week, so I think that says something!
The Dress Rehearsal:
Everyone shows up at 3:30 and we rehearse for about 2 hours, mostly just going over the choral numbers. The choir really picked up on the style of the music by the end, which was awesome. This is totally the kind of music we should be doing.
We had a two and a half hour break, and ate lots of pizza courtesy of the choir! Score!
We were back and ready to go at 7:30, and Tim Vernon went over the plan for the evening: "Tomorrow, there will be a 20 minute break after the first part, and a quick 5 minute pause after the second part. Tonight, however, we'll take two 20 minute breaks."
He gets ready to start the piece, and the second violinist gets up and says something softly to him. He said almost cheerfully "oh, okay, see you tomorrow. I was told that this was a 3 hour call, and that's how I planned the rehearsal, so I'll just grab my coat.", and he got his coat and left!
Five minutes passed, and everyone was so shocked that they just kind of just stayed where they were. Then Tim walked back in, went straight to the podium, and started the rehearsal.
The consensus seemed to be that the union call had been for 2 and a half hours, and the piece was going to take longer than that. I'm guessing it wasn't a completely isolated incident, because the orchestra seemed to not be too concerned about what was going on. Anyways, the rehearsal went for 2:15, so it didn't end up being a big deal.
The Performance:
This was a lot of fun. It started off poorly, only because we went out to our places in the pews at St. Paul's, and Vicky gave us a sign to sit down, when the stage manager was telling one group of people to stay standing. So half the choir sat down, and about 12 scattered people stayed standing. It was hilarious and we laughed at then until they sat down. The actual performance started off a little slow, but by the second chorus we were into it. Monica Whicher is FANTASTIC, and I liked the baritone ... Nathan something ... a lot too, but I thought Colin Ainsworth could have been better cast. He had a very light voice, and it sounded quite breathy to me. Anyways, they all did well, and it seemed to go by quickly.
Does everyone know the part in the Creation where the Contrabassoon comes in? It during the second Bass aria, which is "Now in full splendour shines the heavens", and it just comes out of nowhere, REALLY loud, and totally obtrusive to the texture. I scanned the audience when it happened, and spotted exactly four people who were laughing. They were:
Tom Wiebe
Anita Krause
Kevin McMillan
Danielle Buonaiuto
THAT, in turn, made me almost lose it on stage.
I'm bored of writing about this. Anyways, it was fun. UWO Singers really is a cool bunch of people this year. I don't care if it is a diva choir, we still sing well and enjoy performing. That's all I would ask for in a choir.