Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The Concert, She Was Good

Last night my chorus performed a kick ass holiday concert! I can't remember a single mistake we made and the audience really digged our performance. I have 3 weeks without rehearsals for the holiday break and everything starts up again Jan. 5.

We did movements 1, 2, 5, 9 and 10 from Carmina Burana. I love movement 5 because it's alliteration hell and the words sound ridiculous like, "o cupidis simus iussu cypridis" Carmina started off the concert strongly. Then we say Exsultate Justi in Domino, The Road Not Taken, and New Day. Exsultate is like a madrigal in latin so I loved it. The Road Not Taken wasn't something I enjoyed listening to or singing. But it was sandwiched in between two songs I adore. Next we sang Danny Boy - again not too thrilled. I've sung that oh about ten million times and it's such a downer song. We did two jazzy songs: Stompin at the Savoy and Puttin on the Ritz which were a long of fun with crazy rhythms and odd harmonies. Then we got into the holiday part of the holiday concert by singing Mary's Boy Chile, Hanerot Halalu, and Silver Bells. I loved the variety of songs and if you really tried, it was easy to memorize everything. I only needed lyrics cheat sheets for Carmina.

The final dress rehearsal, I was witness to an adult male throwing a tantrum over memorizing music (specifically Danny Boy). He appears to be a fully functioning adult in his 50's/60's but he literally threw down his music and stamped his foot while our director was giving us feedback on the song. I simply do not understand how memorizing music can be such a chore. If you attend enough rehearsals, the music gets in your brain and sure you might need a lyric cheat sheet because memorizing words might be tough. We had 3 months to memorize 2 songs and this guy hit the roof and threatened not to sing in the concert. It's freaking Danny Boy! Come on, what can be so hard about that song?

Our next concert is in February where we will sing the full Carmina Burana with 2 other choruses and full orchestra at Regis College. It should be AMAZING!

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