Montreal, part cinq

[bigmacbear]

Wednesday, July 21

In which the Rochettes perform, and Bear Soup I fizzles out.

Wednesday morning Dennis and I decided to have breakfast at chez Cora dejeuners, a breakfast and light-lunch place on rue Stanley. When we got to the Metro station we caught up with Jerry from Tampa and he joined us for breakfast. I had the "construction worker" breakfast -- eggs, sausage, and the works.

It's a fun little place, and when we got out of Festival Chorus rehearsal and met up with Gary (gmjambear) we decided to return for lunch as well. There was a display in the front window and a free postcard there caught my eye -- it pictured a cute, tanned young man with a little stubble on his chin, passed out on the beach with a drink in one hand and another beside him, and some sort of message written in sunblock cream on his back. It looked like some sort of anti-alcohol thing, since it's fairly close to McGill University. I took one as a souvenir. After the big breakfast I chose a lighter lunch of turkey-and-pear salad. They were rather busy at lunchtime and Dennis had to run off to change clothes and get to the Rochettes' stage call in time. We saw the rest of the Rochettes on our own way back to the hotel and Dennis had already gotten in touch with them, so he would be along shortly.

As it happened, the Rochettes opened the concert block; the ensemble that was supposed to come on prior to their set cancelled. They did a fantastic job on the three numbers they'd prepared: "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", "One" from A Chorus Line, and "Tapmania" from (or at least patterned after) Tap Dogs. The latter piece is all tap, no accompaniment and no singing.

Following the Rochettes was Vox Alterna, a small auditioned ensemble of the Columbus GMC. They did an excellent job, particularly on "Java Jive" and "Up the Ladder To the Roof". I don't care if Dennis hates it, I really like that song, especially when done as well as it was here. Following them was the Gulf Coast Men's Chorus, whose most notable number was "(We Think We've Got) A Fairy In the Firehouse". Then we heard the New Century Singers from Long Island, who did a great job on Steve Milloy's arrangement of "I Ain't Afraid" by Holly Near, as well as some pieces composed by their artistic director. One Voice (Charlotte), so labeled as to distinguish them from the group by the same name in Minneapolis who immediately followed them, did well on two Eric Lane Barnes pieces, one serious, the other comic: "Am I Welcome Here" involves a gay man going to church and wondering if he will be accepted, and the "Caffeine Overload Polka" got the audience roaring with laughter, especially when the altos started to mime twitching from caffeine withdrawal. Not pretty, but very funny. We decided to switch venues and so did not hear the Minneapolis group, although I read both groups sang together (perhaps in a show of solidarity) at the end of the Minneapolis program. We caught the tail end of Arizona Women In Tune's program, which also featured the Grand Canyon Men's Chorale on a piece called "Freedom Come". Then we heard the Denver Women's Chorus, who did a commissioned work called "Ouroboros" (the snake eating its tail, a mythological figure) and an arrangement of "Circle of Life" from The Lion King. Finally, the sole concert block of the day closed with the Women's Chorus of Dallas, who did a beautiful job overall, and especially on "Adiemus". They also did "Power Tools (Are A Girl's Best Friend)" (yes, they substituted power tools for diamonds).

After the concert block Dennis, Gary, and I joined Van (vaneramos) and Danny (djjo) at a Thai place in the Village just opposite the Beaudry stop. The menu was trilingual, in Thai, French, and English, but we still ended up ordering by number. They too were busy so we ended up taking our checks to the register as we couldn't afford to wait much longer. Van and Danny wanted to go see Lily Tomlin, while Gary, Dennis, and I wanted to go to Bear Soup. We did stop back at the hotel so Dennis could change into swim trunks (he was still in Rochette drag) before heading off.

Bear Soup was to be held in the hotel pool at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza near the Sherbrooke Metro station. On the way there we got into conversation with a tall young bear named Chris who is the artistic director of Desert Voices, a chorus from Tucson which did not perform at Festival VIIe. Chris looked festive in a leather UtiliKilt. When we arrived at the hotel things were not looking good. We overloaded the poor elevator on the first try and had to get out and split up into multiple cars. Then when we'd changed clothes and gotten into the pool we found little kids swimming around. They were having a grand time but it did put a damper on things, the more so when the hotel decided to kick us out at 9 PM because of the noise. That hotel pool just wasn't cut out to have hundreds of bears in the pool area, as the sound of ordinary conversation multiplies in the echoes and it is impossible to keep the noise level down.

When Bear Soup broke up we decided to kick back in the bar at our own hotel, rather than rush off to Skybar (from what I heard, that place was chosen due to its being a "twink" bar that the Bears wanted to "invade" -- but that could easily be a misinterpretation). Gary decided to go up to bed early but Dennis and I decided to stay up a bit. But even we ended up turning in at a reasonable hour, as Thursday promised to be a long day.