Tuesday, July 20

In which RGMC performs and we get to meet a lot of people including some more LJ'ers.

This morning Dennis had his tech rehearsal for the Rochettes, so I was off to Festival Chorus by myself. I grabbed a muffin and a bottle of iced tea from a vendor in the mall leading from the Metro station to rue Stanley, and had a quick breakfast outside the rehearsal hall at the Sheraton. I think it was this morning that a couple of guys in one-piece women's swimsuits and swim caps showed up outside our rehearsal room and asked "Ou est la piscine?" ("Where's the pool?"). When I told Dennis about it later he thought it was something the boys from Germany, Schola Cantorosa, would do.

After Festival Chorus rehearsal, we had lunch at the hotel, where I got another smoked meat sandwich. We then had some time to relax and prepare for the upcoming performance, as we chose to forgo the "Voices of Women" concert and our set did not begin until 4 PM.

At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier we met up with Van (

vaneramos), Danny (

djjo), Cameron (

handlebear) and Steve (

dakoopst) in the orchestra seats. I stayed with them through the set from the ensemble from Singing Out! and the first number from the Coastliners (Cleveland) which was cutting it rather close to our call time. Unfortunately both sets were marred by a "ghost" in the sound system that sounded rather like someone in leather pants writhing on a leather sofa. Because of this they held up our call time about 10 to 15 minutes while they worked this out. During this time we shmoozed a bit with the fellows from Turtle Creek Chorale who followed us, including Sam (

bassbehr) and Michael (

mrh745i).

Backstage, I was gratified to hear the reaction of our guide, a native Montrealer, to the piece we put together with the Metro stops sung to the tune of the "Soldiers' Chorus" from Faust. We also got to hear just the tail end of the West Coast Singers' performance, including "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray and "Make Them Hear You" from Ragtime, both of which were very popular at this GALA festival. Dennis also caught up with the Master of Ceremonies and suggested he close one of his comedy fillers with "Thank you. I'm here all week." But he replied "I don't have the moxie for that." This after telling the entire audience (honestly) he was a cock-ring salesman the previous day. Yeah, right. ;-)

Next it was our turn. We did "We Are the Song" first -- music by Dennis and words by Alan (

redcub). It got a warm reception from the audience, as did everything else we sang. Several of the Francophone members of the audience were very grateful we had one of our Chorines, Rev. Darrell, repeat all of Nick's announcements in French (there was a big "Merci!" shouted from the audience).
We went on to the "Choeur du Metro de Montreal" (the Metro-stops song) and "Manly Men" and then Weird Al Yankovic's "Truck Drivin' Song" featuring a really butch Chorine changing from boots and a flannel shirt to high heels and a teddy. Next came my own piece, "I Am With You Always", which we followed up with what I believe is our best rendition yet of the Lauridsen "O Magnum Mysterium", and closed with "Favorite Son". Our little trick was to have the entire chorus who weren't doing the hand motions to wave American flags -- except the one Chorine in the middle of the back row (Felix) who had a huge Canadian flag to wave instead. Our program could thus be characterized as "from the sublime to the ridiculous -- and back!"

After the concert I was approached by a number of people who appreciated my work on "I Am With You Always". One fellow from Los Angeles mentioned that it made him cry, which Gary pointed out as he did back in June when my mom and dad came to hear us and Mom started to cry -- "Shame on you!" (tongue firmly in cheek ;-). A woman from Dallas said the man next to her asked if I were single. "I don't know -- he ain't mine!" she replied. And I got the first of several requests for other choruses to sing the song, from a couple from the Reveille GMC from Tucson who are definite bears. Also, we got a lot of compliments from TCC on the Lauridsen, which they had performed at some time in the past and was the first piece they got to hear of ours backstage. We hung out outside the concert hall for a while afterward, chatting with people we'd met in San Jose, Cincinnati, and here already in Montreal, and it got a bit late for dinner. We had a nice leisurely dinner at our hotel anyway, and arrived toward the end of the evening set.

The Columbus GMC did a great job on their all-singing, all-dancing set. They did do at least one reflective number, "I Can't Make You Love Me" as popularized by Bonnie Raitt (composed by Mike Reid, whom I wonder if he is the same Mike Reid who left the Cincinnati Bengals to become a concert pianist). But they shone on "Jump, Jive, and Wail/This Joint Is Jumpin'" and "You Can't Stop The Beat". The block closed with the Gay Men's Chorus of Houston, with an arrangement of "Celebrate" (as I recall, the song popularized by Three Dog Night in the late '60's).

As we got ready for bed we watched a bit of the French-language version of MuchMusic, and were treated to a techno band called the Prototypes singing "Danse sur le merde" ("dance on the shit") repeatedly to a rather tuneless techno background (reminding me of nothing so much as "Pump Up the Jam" by Technotronic). It was amusing to say the least.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey Mike...is there a Gay Mens Chorus group on LJ? I think we need to create one if there isn't.

There is the gala_choruses community.

Excellent, thanks Cam.

I knew you were going to get a great reaction for "Always," just based on how everyone else has raved about it.

I am happy to know that "Song" got a warm reception. Yay.

I can picture Felix - Latino Felix - waving a Canadian flag.

O! The Irony. Cool!

The song was co-written (with Allen Shamblin) by the same Mike Reid who was an award-winning defensive tackle for Penn State and the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Columbus GMC did a great job with that song at GALA.

Double danke schon to both of you for the kudos - I sing with Columbus and way blowned away with the week in general as well as the audience reception. Wow! And congrats again to you Mike for your fabulous song. See you in four years.

Was this past GALA your first?

I traveled to San Jose for GALA 4 years earlier and I was impressed with Columbus' group back then. So I knew what to expect and it exceeded my expectations.

Thanks for the message.

Yes - I am a former GALA virgin. My cherry was formally popped Monday after singing with Illuminati. The chorus tried to tell us about how we had been received at past GALAs, but nothing could have prepared me for those concert blocks. I cannot express the beauty of this experience and how life-changing it has been - though I have tried in my own LJ version of the week. I must admit that this one is far more interesting - but then again, he is a much more woofy bear...

Montreal, part quatre

Tuesday, July 20

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"I Can't Make You Love Me"

Re: "I Can't Make You Love Me"

Re: "I Can't Make You Love Me"

Re: "I Can't Make You Love Me"