bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-25 10:42 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-25 10:42 pm
GALA Festival 8 -- Tuesday, July 15
Tuesday began with a jaunt to the Marriott for a Bear Soup pool party. We began with brunch in the Marriott restaurant and then headed up to the pool deck. After about 10 or 15 minutes in the pool, though, the clouds opened up and a torrential downpour sent us bears scrambling for the shelter of the unused pool bar. We waited half an hour in vain for the rain to clear, although it did slacken just enough for us to make a dash for the hotel proper.
I had to return to the Intercontinental for a final rehearsal in the Sevilla Room (see yesterday's post) which overlapped the first concert set of the afternoon, so![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gmjambear and I went our separate ways temporarily; he headed for the concert hall while I headed back to the hotel. Rehearsal went rather well.
I was able to get back to the concert hall in time to catch the end of the performance of Voices Rising, a women's chorus from the Boston area. They were followed by Reveille Men's Chorus from Tucson, who opened with the ever-popular "Come Travel With Me", and Atlanta GMC, who did a great job on the "Humming Chorus" from Madame Butterfly (a nearby audience member said something to the effect of "didn't they remember the words?" ;-) and a selection from Tannhäuser among others. After Atlanta's performance I was able to get Gary's attention from up in the second tier and he came up to join me, but wasn't able to actually sit beside me in the time between sets. So we watched the River City Mixed Chorus of Omaha, Nebraska from nearby but not adjacent seats. They did a commissioned work called "Gender Blender" which spoke to people's expectations of each other with respect to gender. Finally we got to sit together for the Cincinnati Men's Chorus set, "Heroes", which included a Steve Milloy arrangement of "Holding Out For A Hero" which begins with a classical setting of "Salva me" ("Save me") from the Requiem Mass, Eric Lane Barnes' "Super Clothes Make the Super Man" from PowerPants!, and a piece called "The Journey (I'll Go Alone)" with a trio includingcincycub. I was impressed with all the solo work in their set.
After the first set Gary and I went off to scare up some dinner, and found a small cafeteria-style shop in the mini-mall between the Marriott and the Doubletree. They had chicken piccata on special so that made a quick and tasty dinner. After dinner it was nearly time for the next set, so I made my way back to the hotel to relax and change into my concert clothes while Gary caught the first couple of sets of the evening block.
I arrived in time for the tail end of One Voice Mixed Chorus from St. Paul, Minnesota and their hilarious "Musical Risotto". Akin to a piece I've sung before called "Insalata Italiana", the lyrics are all Italian musical directions, for which a couple of guys with cue cards provided translations. Of course, the topper was when one part of the lyrics was translated "Really ff'ing loud!", with the f's in the font used for musical dynamic markings. They were followed by the San Diego Women's Chorus and then the Golden Gate Men's Chorus. I saw only a brief snip of Golden Gate's program from the TV monitors in the lobby before it was time to go backstage, but later heard that their director (the fellow with the cane I mentioned earlier) had put so much energy into their performance that he had to be helped (or, by some accounts, actually carried) from the stage by several choristers.
Backstage, we lined up and got into position in fairly short order; we had to put our badges and bags on a table which was in a darkened area. Soon enough it was time to take the stage. We opened with "How Sweet the Moonlight" from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in a double-choir setting, followed by a new setting of Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (both from our travel show "A Foreign Affaire" with Rick Steves). Then we went from the sublime to the ridiculous and performed "Deep Love" from Young Frankenstein in medley with "Every Sperm Is Sacred" from Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life. On the latter piece our ASL artistic interpreter, Kevin, stole the show trying to sign about spilling semen on the ground as the lyrics demanded. Next up was "The Homomotion", a dance confection by Eric Lane Barnes.
Then we went back to the serious music for our joint number with SWC (who were seated in the "choral terrace" above and behind us on stage), Morten Lauridsen's setting of "Sure On This Shining Night" by James Agee. I later had several people ask me if Dennis (our director) had planned the costuming for the women to have the effect that it did: they were wearing sequined gown tops which, given their position above and behind the chorus, twinkled like the stars we were singing about. When he heard about this Dennis swore it was not planned, but given that his degree is in opera production it would not surprise me.
We closed our set (and the evening, around 11 PM) with the theme song from Sordid Lives. This was the choreographical masterpiece of our recent show with Leslie Jordan. The women were all given Jesus fans to fan themselves with, while Sensible Shoes came onto the stage dressed as Southern church ladies to sing the word "bitch" in harmony as it came up in the final refrain. It was an absolute scream, the more so as some audience members who had seen the film joined in lustily on every "bitch" -- unfortunately that had the undesired effect of drowning out Sensible Shoes. Still, it was quite the experience to see and hear an audience get so involved in our performance.
During the picture taking session it turned out I had picked up the wrong badge backstage in the dark, swapping with Chris who was the soloist on "Every Sperm", but we managed to straighten that out in fairly short order thanks to TJ. After pictures were taken I rejoined Gary at the front of the hall and we proceeded to catch the shuttle bus back to the hotel. We went to the hotel bar to unwind and met some folks from the Council Oak Men's Chorale there, and had a nice conversation with them before heading for bed.
I had to return to the Intercontinental for a final rehearsal in the Sevilla Room (see yesterday's post) which overlapped the first concert set of the afternoon, so
gmjambear and I went our separate ways temporarily; he headed for the concert hall while I headed back to the hotel. Rehearsal went rather well. I was able to get back to the concert hall in time to catch the end of the performance of Voices Rising, a women's chorus from the Boston area. They were followed by Reveille Men's Chorus from Tucson, who opened with the ever-popular "Come Travel With Me", and Atlanta GMC, who did a great job on the "Humming Chorus" from Madame Butterfly (a nearby audience member said something to the effect of "didn't they remember the words?" ;-) and a selection from Tannhäuser among others. After Atlanta's performance I was able to get Gary's attention from up in the second tier and he came up to join me, but wasn't able to actually sit beside me in the time between sets. So we watched the River City Mixed Chorus of Omaha, Nebraska from nearby but not adjacent seats. They did a commissioned work called "Gender Blender" which spoke to people's expectations of each other with respect to gender. Finally we got to sit together for the Cincinnati Men's Chorus set, "Heroes", which included a Steve Milloy arrangement of "Holding Out For A Hero" which begins with a classical setting of "Salva me" ("Save me") from the Requiem Mass, Eric Lane Barnes' "Super Clothes Make the Super Man" from PowerPants!, and a piece called "The Journey (I'll Go Alone)" with a trio including
cincycub. I was impressed with all the solo work in their set.After the first set Gary and I went off to scare up some dinner, and found a small cafeteria-style shop in the mini-mall between the Marriott and the Doubletree. They had chicken piccata on special so that made a quick and tasty dinner. After dinner it was nearly time for the next set, so I made my way back to the hotel to relax and change into my concert clothes while Gary caught the first couple of sets of the evening block.
I arrived in time for the tail end of One Voice Mixed Chorus from St. Paul, Minnesota and their hilarious "Musical Risotto". Akin to a piece I've sung before called "Insalata Italiana", the lyrics are all Italian musical directions, for which a couple of guys with cue cards provided translations. Of course, the topper was when one part of the lyrics was translated "Really ff'ing loud!", with the f's in the font used for musical dynamic markings. They were followed by the San Diego Women's Chorus and then the Golden Gate Men's Chorus. I saw only a brief snip of Golden Gate's program from the TV monitors in the lobby before it was time to go backstage, but later heard that their director (the fellow with the cane I mentioned earlier) had put so much energy into their performance that he had to be helped (or, by some accounts, actually carried) from the stage by several choristers.
Backstage, we lined up and got into position in fairly short order; we had to put our badges and bags on a table which was in a darkened area. Soon enough it was time to take the stage. We opened with "How Sweet the Moonlight" from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in a double-choir setting, followed by a new setting of Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (both from our travel show "A Foreign Affaire" with Rick Steves). Then we went from the sublime to the ridiculous and performed "Deep Love" from Young Frankenstein in medley with "Every Sperm Is Sacred" from Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life. On the latter piece our ASL artistic interpreter, Kevin, stole the show trying to sign about spilling semen on the ground as the lyrics demanded. Next up was "The Homomotion", a dance confection by Eric Lane Barnes.
Then we went back to the serious music for our joint number with SWC (who were seated in the "choral terrace" above and behind us on stage), Morten Lauridsen's setting of "Sure On This Shining Night" by James Agee. I later had several people ask me if Dennis (our director) had planned the costuming for the women to have the effect that it did: they were wearing sequined gown tops which, given their position above and behind the chorus, twinkled like the stars we were singing about. When he heard about this Dennis swore it was not planned, but given that his degree is in opera production it would not surprise me.
We closed our set (and the evening, around 11 PM) with the theme song from Sordid Lives. This was the choreographical masterpiece of our recent show with Leslie Jordan. The women were all given Jesus fans to fan themselves with, while Sensible Shoes came onto the stage dressed as Southern church ladies to sing the word "bitch" in harmony as it came up in the final refrain. It was an absolute scream, the more so as some audience members who had seen the film joined in lustily on every "bitch" -- unfortunately that had the undesired effect of drowning out Sensible Shoes. Still, it was quite the experience to see and hear an audience get so involved in our performance.
During the picture taking session it turned out I had picked up the wrong badge backstage in the dark, swapping with Chris who was the soloist on "Every Sperm", but we managed to straighten that out in fairly short order thanks to TJ. After pictures were taken I rejoined Gary at the front of the hall and we proceeded to catch the shuttle bus back to the hotel. We went to the hotel bar to unwind and met some folks from the Council Oak Men's Chorale there, and had a nice conversation with them before heading for bed.