Concert report

Last night was our (Honolulu Symphony Chorus) big concert of this fall season with the Symphony Orchestra. We performed Bach's "Magnificat," Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols," and Rutter's "Gloria." It was free to the audience, but I was still afraid we'd have a small crowd. We were at the Blaisdell Concert Hall which probably has about 2100 seats.

So I was very pleasantly surprised to see a pretty full house when we walked onstage! And an enthusiastic one as well. They applauded after every movement of each piece, which you're not supposed to do at a classical concert, and even gave a few whoops for the soloists. A few people talked abt the audience back stage, but hey, I'll take every bit of applause and whoop we can get.

Chris reported to me that the audience even gave a special round to the harp player for her agility in getting her instrument on a little dolly and whisking it efficiently offstage.

On the Bach, I came in during a rest which I haven't done the entire time we've rehearsed it, and then I actually got the last five bars of the piece, which I'd pretty consistently screwed up, so I guess I'm even on that one. We had professional soloists for that piece.

The Youth Opera Chorus and a small chamber choir of our folks (we're about 120+ voices) performed the Britten piece. We were able to hear it backstage, but didn't get to see it, so Chris had to tell me more about that. There were a couple of solo voices from the girls that were really outstanding.

We finished with the Gloria which is a piece with a lot of brass and tympani and lots of different rhythms. It's a lot of fun to sing and I went at it with great gusto. Not sure I always cut off at the right spot - sometimes it's just hard to stop!

The audience gave us several "curtain calls" and all in all, it was a really great experience. Something about it was very magical, standing up there in my black dress and pearls with the orchestra in front of us. This is the first professional chorus I've sung in, and it's been a real experience. After the audition, I wondered if I was out of my league, and who knows, maybe I am, but I've enjoyed it.

The after action report came from Chris. He told me I was the best in my row. Awww. He also said that after we stood up, he couldn't really see me and wanted to know who put the tall people in front. Our director did say to us that she couldn't believe she forgot to ask for people's height on the audition form so that she could take that into consideration when placing us for the concert.

Chris and I both agreed that the Bach was our least favorite of the night. Before this, I've heard of it, and even had a recording of it, but something about it never hit my heart. Most of the time I become very fond of the music I've done after spending so much time rehearsing it, but not this one. I think we pulled it off in a reasonably competent fashion, though. It is a tough piece of music, written for 5 choral parts.

Even though I could hear most of the Britten, Chris filled me in on what they looked like and how many kids were in the Youth Opera Chorus. It was all girls, and I don't know why. On the Gloria, Chris' comment was that he couldn't get into the same Latin word or phrases over and over. "So tell me a story about Gloria. Give me a sentence. Did she bake a cake?" Well, no. Not what this piece was about.

Speaking of food, while I'm relaxing, Chris is cooking our Thanksgiving dinner! More on that in the next entry.