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bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-26 11:09 am
bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-26 11:09 am
GALA Festival 8 -- Thursday, July 17
Today's concerts began with an 11 AM performance of BraveSouls and Dreamers by the Portland Gay Men's Chorus at the Hilton ballroom. The renowned composer/lyricist team of Robert Seeley and Robert Espindola (affectionately known as "the Roberts"), who wrote the piece, now reside in Portland. Seeley was the composer (working with lyricist Philip Littell) of the NakedMan song cycle that gave this genre its start among GALA choruses, and the pair have since written several other large works including Exile, Metamorphosis, and To A Dancing Star. All week the Portland choristers have been wearing T-shirts with "The Great Obscenity" printed on the back and details about this piece on the front. At one point earlier in the week we got to chatting with a bearish PGMC member named Brian who, it turns out, sings the role of "Soldier Two" in this production, in which we learn that war is in fact the Great Obscenity. ("Soldier One" is also quite bearish as it happens, but we didn't get the opportunity to chat with him.) All in all, it was an impressive work.
The first concert block of the afternoon featured the youth choruses, who were scheduled to perform in both halls so everyone could see and hear each group. We chose to see the earlier performances. Mosaic Youth Chorus from Denver did a nice job with fairly standard repertoire including "Imagine" by John Lennon. GLAM from San Francisco had to cancel their performance after it was discovered at the last minute that only three of the kids could make it to Miami. Dreams of Hope, from Pittsburgh, interspersed brief sketches and poetry recitations with their music. The Youth Pride Chorus, from New York, impressed with their rousing renditions of Aretha Franklin's "Think" and John Fogarty's classic "Proud Mary".
Next was Seattle's own Diverse Harmony. Gary and I had heard their program at their concert in Seattle but they were excellent on the GALA stage. They did a number of gospel-flavored works like "River In Judea" and "The Storm Is Passing Over", as well as the tried and true "Gate, Gate". Unfortunately for the singers, though, their director's butt proved an irresistible visual distraction to many of the gay men in the audience. ;-) The set closed with the original gay-straight alliance youth chorus, GLASS Youth Chorus from Vancouver, BC. They impressed with material which would be challenging to an adult chorus, as well as a piece called "Whatever" which decries apathy in the political sphere, and a humorous piece called "Cyber Love" which featured the line "all of you out there can go fax yourselves".
While sitting in the lobby between performance blocks, we caught up with Gianluca and Dan from Ottawa, Ontario. We'd met Gianluca at the post-festival farewell party put on by San Francisco in San Jose in 2000, and Dan at the Bear Buddies Toronto "Winter Bear Bacchanal" in January 2002. As none of the Ottawa choruses were able to attend this festival, Gianluca chose to "sit in" with the Montreal GMC in their performance this afternoon. Dan later told us they were flying to Italy that Saturday to visit Gianluca's family, so we made sure to wish them safe travels. We also met a fellow named Jeff who sings with Golden Gate but is a former member of SMC. Jeff assured us that their director was just worn out from the performance (the phrase "slain by the Spirit" was used more than once) and had recovered well from his exertions.
Also between sets, I picked up some more T-shirts at the GALA Store, partly as souvenirs and partly because I was sweating so profusely at times (like the proverbial whore in church) that one T-shirt a day wasn't going to be sufficient. I also got a CD of the Portland piece we'd heard this morning and the forms to order CDs of the performances through the week and our chorus picture.
The mid-afternoon set was presented only in the Ziff Ballet Opera House, so there was no competition for choruses in this time slot. Colla Voce from San Francisco did a nice job on "It's Hot Up Here" from Sunday In the Park With George, another Stephen Foster set, the "Geographical Fugue" ("Trinidad, and the big Mississippi...") and closed with "Available" by Eric Lane Barnes. Sine Nomine (Latin for "without a name") from the Denver area were the only other chorus to perform the Lauridsen "Sure On This Shining Night" and did a credible job on that piece as well as "And So It Goes". Hampton Roads Men's Chorus did a commissioned work called "Vows", with a movement regarding infidelity with half of the chorus singing about the wall between one partner and the other, and the other half singing the Confiteor (I confess) text from the Latin Mass; as well as a final movement about pre-nuptial agreements and some of the outrageous legalese that goes into them. Oakland East Bay GMC did an impressive rendition of "Over the Rainbow" as well as "Open Wide Your Eyes" which I'd done with Rochester in our joint concert with Delaware Valley (now the New Jersey GMC). The set closed with the Montreal GMC (plus Gianluca) who opened with an impressive chorus line performing (what else?) "One" from A Chorus Line. They did two very recognizable numbers in French translation, "En Courant" ("Theme from Mahogany") and "Les moulin de mon coeur" ("The Windmills Of Your Mind"). Nice job!
The evening set we decided to part company again; I wanted to hear Schola Cantorosa - Schwuler Männerchor Hamburg (which translates to the Hamburg GMC) and thought Gary would want to hear the Lavender Light Gospel Choir, but Gary suggested we switch. So I went to the Ziff Ballet Opera House while Gary stayed in the Knight Concert Hall. I happened to sit with Joel, SMC's coordinator of all things GALA for this trip. We saw Triad Pride Men's Chorus from Greensboro, North Carolina who did an impressive rendition of "Hard Times Come Again No More" by Stephen Foster featuring a double-bass player named Austin whom I'd met in Cincinnati. They also did a David Maddux arrangement of a Judy Garland medley which, truth be told, I wasn't impressed with, and "Color Out Of Colorado" from When Pigs Fly, of which Joel remarked, "It sounds better sung by 20 than by 200". They were followed by Harmony: a Colorado chorale, who did a revue about magic featuring "Magic To Do" from Pippin, "Puff, the Magic Dragon", and "Nella Fantasia" (Italian lyrics set to "Gabriel's Oboe" from The Mission). The shorter block in Ziff closed with Lavender Light, who did an impressive gospel set featuring "God Is In Control", with an amazing percussion combo that kept the beat going very, very fast. Unfortunately, Lavender Light had had problems with running overtime in the past and, probably as a result, cut their set short by nearly 10 minutes; however, that had the unanticipated benefit that, as the audience poured into Knight from Ziff, we got to see the end of Schola Cantorosa's set with "There's No Business Like Show Business". Finally, the GMC of San Diego closed the evening with an impressive performance including the large work "Song of Democracy" based on a Whitman poem, and "Last Letter Home" based on the "to be opened only in the event of my death" letter written by a soldier killed in Iraq to his family.
After the evening set we were fairly hungry, so we stopped in to the hotel bar and had Greek pizza with ground lamb, feta cheese, olives, and onions. Then we headed upstairs to bed.
The first concert block of the afternoon featured the youth choruses, who were scheduled to perform in both halls so everyone could see and hear each group. We chose to see the earlier performances. Mosaic Youth Chorus from Denver did a nice job with fairly standard repertoire including "Imagine" by John Lennon. GLAM from San Francisco had to cancel their performance after it was discovered at the last minute that only three of the kids could make it to Miami. Dreams of Hope, from Pittsburgh, interspersed brief sketches and poetry recitations with their music. The Youth Pride Chorus, from New York, impressed with their rousing renditions of Aretha Franklin's "Think" and John Fogarty's classic "Proud Mary".
Next was Seattle's own Diverse Harmony. Gary and I had heard their program at their concert in Seattle but they were excellent on the GALA stage. They did a number of gospel-flavored works like "River In Judea" and "The Storm Is Passing Over", as well as the tried and true "Gate, Gate". Unfortunately for the singers, though, their director's butt proved an irresistible visual distraction to many of the gay men in the audience. ;-) The set closed with the original gay-straight alliance youth chorus, GLASS Youth Chorus from Vancouver, BC. They impressed with material which would be challenging to an adult chorus, as well as a piece called "Whatever" which decries apathy in the political sphere, and a humorous piece called "Cyber Love" which featured the line "all of you out there can go fax yourselves".
While sitting in the lobby between performance blocks, we caught up with Gianluca and Dan from Ottawa, Ontario. We'd met Gianluca at the post-festival farewell party put on by San Francisco in San Jose in 2000, and Dan at the Bear Buddies Toronto "Winter Bear Bacchanal" in January 2002. As none of the Ottawa choruses were able to attend this festival, Gianluca chose to "sit in" with the Montreal GMC in their performance this afternoon. Dan later told us they were flying to Italy that Saturday to visit Gianluca's family, so we made sure to wish them safe travels. We also met a fellow named Jeff who sings with Golden Gate but is a former member of SMC. Jeff assured us that their director was just worn out from the performance (the phrase "slain by the Spirit" was used more than once) and had recovered well from his exertions.
Also between sets, I picked up some more T-shirts at the GALA Store, partly as souvenirs and partly because I was sweating so profusely at times (like the proverbial whore in church) that one T-shirt a day wasn't going to be sufficient. I also got a CD of the Portland piece we'd heard this morning and the forms to order CDs of the performances through the week and our chorus picture.
The mid-afternoon set was presented only in the Ziff Ballet Opera House, so there was no competition for choruses in this time slot. Colla Voce from San Francisco did a nice job on "It's Hot Up Here" from Sunday In the Park With George, another Stephen Foster set, the "Geographical Fugue" ("Trinidad, and the big Mississippi...") and closed with "Available" by Eric Lane Barnes. Sine Nomine (Latin for "without a name") from the Denver area were the only other chorus to perform the Lauridsen "Sure On This Shining Night" and did a credible job on that piece as well as "And So It Goes". Hampton Roads Men's Chorus did a commissioned work called "Vows", with a movement regarding infidelity with half of the chorus singing about the wall between one partner and the other, and the other half singing the Confiteor (I confess) text from the Latin Mass; as well as a final movement about pre-nuptial agreements and some of the outrageous legalese that goes into them. Oakland East Bay GMC did an impressive rendition of "Over the Rainbow" as well as "Open Wide Your Eyes" which I'd done with Rochester in our joint concert with Delaware Valley (now the New Jersey GMC). The set closed with the Montreal GMC (plus Gianluca) who opened with an impressive chorus line performing (what else?) "One" from A Chorus Line. They did two very recognizable numbers in French translation, "En Courant" ("Theme from Mahogany") and "Les moulin de mon coeur" ("The Windmills Of Your Mind"). Nice job!
The evening set we decided to part company again; I wanted to hear Schola Cantorosa - Schwuler Männerchor Hamburg (which translates to the Hamburg GMC) and thought Gary would want to hear the Lavender Light Gospel Choir, but Gary suggested we switch. So I went to the Ziff Ballet Opera House while Gary stayed in the Knight Concert Hall. I happened to sit with Joel, SMC's coordinator of all things GALA for this trip. We saw Triad Pride Men's Chorus from Greensboro, North Carolina who did an impressive rendition of "Hard Times Come Again No More" by Stephen Foster featuring a double-bass player named Austin whom I'd met in Cincinnati. They also did a David Maddux arrangement of a Judy Garland medley which, truth be told, I wasn't impressed with, and "Color Out Of Colorado" from When Pigs Fly, of which Joel remarked, "It sounds better sung by 20 than by 200". They were followed by Harmony: a Colorado chorale, who did a revue about magic featuring "Magic To Do" from Pippin, "Puff, the Magic Dragon", and "Nella Fantasia" (Italian lyrics set to "Gabriel's Oboe" from The Mission). The shorter block in Ziff closed with Lavender Light, who did an impressive gospel set featuring "God Is In Control", with an amazing percussion combo that kept the beat going very, very fast. Unfortunately, Lavender Light had had problems with running overtime in the past and, probably as a result, cut their set short by nearly 10 minutes; however, that had the unanticipated benefit that, as the audience poured into Knight from Ziff, we got to see the end of Schola Cantorosa's set with "There's No Business Like Show Business". Finally, the GMC of San Diego closed the evening with an impressive performance including the large work "Song of Democracy" based on a Whitman poem, and "Last Letter Home" based on the "to be opened only in the event of my death" letter written by a soldier killed in Iraq to his family.
After the evening set we were fairly hungry, so we stopped in to the hotel bar and had Greek pizza with ground lamb, feta cheese, olives, and onions. Then we headed upstairs to bed.
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And Gabriel's Oboe must die. The Gateway Men's Chorus lived AND died by that song. Back in 1998, we did NakedMan with the Heartland Men's Chorus and in Kansas City, we did Gabriel's Oboe (on book) and we NAILED it. Everything about it was perfect.
One week later, we were back in St. Louis and our director decided that to impress OUR crowd, we'd go off book. And in rehearsal before the show, we almost nailed it... But seeing as we performed this right after Insalata Italiana, I think we completely lost our place and the piece actually came to a stand still. :(
So yes, GO is the curse of the devil in St. Louis. ;)