Montreal, part trois

[bigmacbear]

Monday, July 19

In which we have a tech rehearsal and some minor costume drama, and check out groups from Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Seattle.

Began the day with breakfast in the hotel bar with Dennis and Steve (another fellow Chorine from Rochester). Gary (gmjambear) slept in.

Went to our tech rehearsal, where our director Nick surprised us with a requirement to go pick up costumes at his hotel room immediately afterwards. Because Dennis and I needed to be at Festival Chorus rehearsal instead, we arranged for other chorines to pick ours up (Dennis asked Steve, while I asked David D.) My thought was that by the time David got my stuff Gary would just be getting up. Unfortunately they missed each other, but fortunately David brought my costume to the first concert set.

Gary, Dennis, and I had lunch at Cafe Delifrance near our hotel (no, that is not Deliverance, Don't Go There) with Jerry from Tampa whom we met at Festival Chorus rehearsal. On the way from the hotel to the concert block we saw a sign advertising the "Festival de Brochettes" for lunch. We fixed it up:

On the left is Dennis, then Jerry, and yours truly on the right.

The first concert block of the day we listened to Turtle Soup (from TCC) and Crescendo (from the Tampa Bay Women's Chorus) before switching to the smaller Theatre Maisonneuve to hear the North Coast Men's Chorus (Cleveland), Men Alive (Orange County, CA -- Bill Eadie, Dennis's roommate in Cincinnati, sang with them), and Voices of Kentuckiana. Crescendo did "The Stove", which Dennis and I had heard a number of times in Cincinnati ("My mother took up a sledgehammer and pounded her stove into bits..."), and a rousing medley from Chicago. During NCMC's performance Dennis turned to Gary and me and said "'Mother' is leaving the stage. Be afraid. Be very afraid." As it turned out 'Mother' played the role of Mother Nature in the dance routine that went with "It's Raining Men". Men Alive's performance featured an Asian countertenor who did a wonderful solo on "Lady Marmalade" (aka "Voulez-vous"). Dennis's friend Michael from Voices of Ketuckiana, whom we'd met in Cincinnati, did some very nice solo and duet work. I also found intriguing the fact that VOK has a gay father and his straight daughter singing with them.

Afterwards we returned to the hotel to hang up my costume, then visited the Expo to see David Long at Yelton Rhodes Music. His advice to me as a new composer (I was planning to show him my portfolio but Dennis suggested that would not be necessary) was to submit pieces after the first of the year, preferably in groups of three with any recordings of performances. Then Dennis, Gary, and I took the Metro up to Outremont for dinner. We tried to find the little diner we had eaten at a couple years ago when we were visiting Montreal for Pride weekend, which I'd thought was La Moulerie (which we had looked up online), but we passed there on the way. Unfortunately that place was closed. We backtracked to La Moulerie and had dinner there -- their specialty is mussels (les moules) in various sauces. Dennis and I had the mussels in Roquefort sauce, Gary decided to stick with fettucine Alfredo. It was good to get away from downtown for a while.

We got back to Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier a bit late for the next set. I think it was around this time we started calling Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier "Sally Jessy Raphael" and Theatre Maissonneuve "Catherine Deneuve" as a joke. Illuminati (the sacred-music ensemble of the Columbus GMC) did a superb job vocally; the Women Next Door, a small a cappella group from Nova Scotia, mostly write their own music, simple but honest. The Cincinnati Men's Chorus did a great job with the song "Hello, Hello" which featured a choreographer exhorting the chorus like Jack on Will and Grace or even Richard Simmons: "Wave left! Wave right! Frame the face! ... Jazz! Hands!" (The latter part has become one of our catch phrases from this event.) Also, Steve Milloy had a great solo. MUSE (the women's chorus from Cincinnati) was phenomenal, especially the soloist on "S'Wonderful". Portland GMC did some very nice commissioned works, especially the solo on "White Cliffs of Dover". Seattle Women's Chorus was brilliant! For a new GALA choir they were sensational -- Dennis remarked, "They have real sopranos!" (which seem to be a rarity among GALA women's choruses).

When we returned to the hotel the elevators were full, so we hung out in the lobby bar for a drink and chatted. Didn't stay up too late as our RGMC performance was the next day.