bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2004-07-29 11:52 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2004-07-29 11:52 pm
Montreal, part six
(This one's easy: 'six' is spelled the same in French as in English. ;-)
In which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vaneramos performs, we switch halls like mad, and I find out how to say "I prefer boys" in Irish.
This being the last of our Festival Chorus rehearsals at le centre Sheraton, Dennis and I had breakfast from the buffet there before rehearsal. It was quite good if a bit pricey. With three concert blocks on Thursday, there wasn't a great deal of extra time built-in in between blocks for meals. I seem to recall hurrying to the first concert block with an eye toward a late lunch in between blocks.
The first block of the day Dennis, Gary (gmjambear) and I mapped out very carefully to see a particular set of choruses, and then discovered we'd sat ourselves down in the "wrong" hall, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Dennis was of the opinion that sometimes these things happen for a reason, and I agree wholeheartedly after hearing Prism (from Delaware) perform. They did a great job on the Duruflé "Ubi Caritas" and a rousing performance of "Welcome to the '60's" from Hairspray. We all switched to the Theatre Maisonneuve and heard Windsong, a women's chorus from Cleveland, with another rousing rendition of Eric Lane Barnes' "Bittersweet Tango" with its bold statement, "Give me chocolate or give me death!" (We'd previously heard this from the Seattle Women's Chorus.) Long Island Pride Chorus did a creditable job on "Let The River Run" from Working Girl, a Carly Simon song also made popular by, of all things, the U.S. Postal Service. We'd done another arrangement of it some years ago which I much enjoyed singing. Next came the Syracuse Gay and Lesbian Chorus, with "Snow" from White Christmas and Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind". Dennis chose to stay for the Triad Pride Men's Chorus while Gary and I went to check out the New York City GMC. They did three pieces from a song cycle they had commissioned by Eric Lane Barnes, Sage Cycle. The last of these, "Twilight", spoke in particular to the experience of a black gay man, and while I would love to have RGMC perform the piece, we would have to have the right soloist. I don't think I can convince Gary to join us on account of this one piece (and I think it's a little high for his best range), Sammy is still too busy to deal with RGMC for a while, but we could hire a professional soloist -- perhaps even the one we just heard? The possibilities are intriguing. But I fear we're just a little too white to pull it off, as has been stated on numerous occasions. NYCGMC filled out their set with a medley from Hairspray, complete with drag queens filling the space above the stage with clouds of the stuff. We returned to Maisonneuve for the Atlanta GMC, featuring Steve (dakoopst) and Ron whom I'd mentioned earlier. High points of their set included "Grace" -- the text of "Amazing Grace" set to the tune of "The Water Is Wide" -- and an excellent arrangement of Brahms' "How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place" by Dennis Nance, whom we'd had lunch with a few days before. Nice set, guys!
After the first concert block I don't recall what we actually had for lunch, but I got to talking with the folks from Glória, a gay and lesbian choir from Dublin, Ireland. They were selling T-shirts that read "Queer as Feck" and "Is fearr liom Buachailli". The latter is pronounced "is far liom BOO-ca-ly" and means "I prefer boys" in Irish Gaelic. Prior to this the sum total of my knowledge of Irish Gaelic was the phrase for "Give me a kiss" (which unfortunately I've never seen written down) and the related term "Pogue ma hone!" which means "Kiss my ass!". We did end up chatting with Van prior to his performance as well.
The second set Gary and I spent in Theatre Maisonneuve while Dennis chose to check out Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. OUTLOUD!, an ensemble of the Orlando GMC, did a set including "What? No Women?" which had the audience in stitches. Fort Worth Men's Chorus did a decent job on "You Raise Me Up" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" among others. As the next group, Men's Voices Milwaukee, took the stage I asked Gary if he recognized anyone from his days at Marquette. He didn't think so. MVM did a rousing rendition of "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor", which was surprisingly popular this Festival, and chose the Lauridsen "Dirait-on" for their French piece, an excellent choice in my opinion.
Next came Van's chorus, the Rainbow Chorus of Waterloo-Wellington. All around an excellent performance, especially on the Broadway numbers ("Razzle Dazzle" from Chicago and "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera), "Rise With Pride" which was composed by a member of the chorus, and the Beatles medley "Love Is All You Need". Bravo, Van!
The block closed with Glória, the Irish choir, with highlights including the North American premiere of their version of the "Irish Blessing" (in Irish of course), and the haunting "She Moved Through The Fair".
As there wasn't a great deal of time for dinner, we decided each of us would get our own dinner from the food court, with one of us waiting with all our stuff while the others went to get food. This was complicated by the fact that most of the places in the food court operate on a cash basis and do not accept plastic. But we all managed to eat and get back to the hall at a reasonable time.
This block we all settled on Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Sotto Voce (an ensemble from One Voice Charlotte) opened with "Up The Ladder To The Roof", winning approval from me if not from Dennis, and did the overture to The Barber of Seville as "The Farmer of Seville", in a vocalise style with barnyard animal sounds instead of doo-wah's. The Windy City Slickers did a mean "Bohemian Rhapsody" followed by a medley of top hits from 1979. Cantaria did a credible job on a wide assortment of music, but it was the Los Angeles Choral Artists who impressed me very much, not with any one piece but with a crisp, clean sound across languages and genres of music.
Following them was the Buffalo GMC, with a commissioned work based on six Walt Whitman poems, Adamic Songs. Each individual piece was just lovely but I concur with Gary that all six, one after the other, become rather ponderous. Even so, I say great job, guys.
The Rainbow Chorus of Delaware chose a set comprised of medleys from Porgy and Bess, Seussical, and of course Hairspray. And for a rousing finale, we heard the Lavender Light Gospel Choir do what they do best -- and for the most part the audience was dancing in the aisles. So what if they ran over a bit.
After such a full day of music there wasn't much left to do but head for bed. We all had a long day to come.
Thursday,July 22
In which
vaneramos performs, we switch halls like mad, and I find out how to say "I prefer boys" in Irish.This being the last of our Festival Chorus rehearsals at le centre Sheraton, Dennis and I had breakfast from the buffet there before rehearsal. It was quite good if a bit pricey. With three concert blocks on Thursday, there wasn't a great deal of extra time built-in in between blocks for meals. I seem to recall hurrying to the first concert block with an eye toward a late lunch in between blocks.
The first block of the day Dennis, Gary (
gmjambear) and I mapped out very carefully to see a particular set of choruses, and then discovered we'd sat ourselves down in the "wrong" hall, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Dennis was of the opinion that sometimes these things happen for a reason, and I agree wholeheartedly after hearing Prism (from Delaware) perform. They did a great job on the Duruflé "Ubi Caritas" and a rousing performance of "Welcome to the '60's" from Hairspray. We all switched to the Theatre Maisonneuve and heard Windsong, a women's chorus from Cleveland, with another rousing rendition of Eric Lane Barnes' "Bittersweet Tango" with its bold statement, "Give me chocolate or give me death!" (We'd previously heard this from the Seattle Women's Chorus.) Long Island Pride Chorus did a creditable job on "Let The River Run" from Working Girl, a Carly Simon song also made popular by, of all things, the U.S. Postal Service. We'd done another arrangement of it some years ago which I much enjoyed singing. Next came the Syracuse Gay and Lesbian Chorus, with "Snow" from White Christmas and Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind". Dennis chose to stay for the Triad Pride Men's Chorus while Gary and I went to check out the New York City GMC. They did three pieces from a song cycle they had commissioned by Eric Lane Barnes, Sage Cycle. The last of these, "Twilight", spoke in particular to the experience of a black gay man, and while I would love to have RGMC perform the piece, we would have to have the right soloist. I don't think I can convince Gary to join us on account of this one piece (and I think it's a little high for his best range), Sammy is still too busy to deal with RGMC for a while, but we could hire a professional soloist -- perhaps even the one we just heard? The possibilities are intriguing. But I fear we're just a little too white to pull it off, as has been stated on numerous occasions. NYCGMC filled out their set with a medley from Hairspray, complete with drag queens filling the space above the stage with clouds of the stuff. We returned to Maisonneuve for the Atlanta GMC, featuring Steve (dakoopst) and Ron whom I'd mentioned earlier. High points of their set included "Grace" -- the text of "Amazing Grace" set to the tune of "The Water Is Wide" -- and an excellent arrangement of Brahms' "How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place" by Dennis Nance, whom we'd had lunch with a few days before. Nice set, guys!After the first concert block I don't recall what we actually had for lunch, but I got to talking with the folks from Glória, a gay and lesbian choir from Dublin, Ireland. They were selling T-shirts that read "Queer as Feck" and "Is fearr liom Buachailli". The latter is pronounced "is far liom BOO-ca-ly" and means "I prefer boys" in Irish Gaelic. Prior to this the sum total of my knowledge of Irish Gaelic was the phrase for "Give me a kiss" (which unfortunately I've never seen written down) and the related term "Pogue ma hone!" which means "Kiss my ass!". We did end up chatting with Van prior to his performance as well.
The second set Gary and I spent in Theatre Maisonneuve while Dennis chose to check out Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. OUTLOUD!, an ensemble of the Orlando GMC, did a set including "What? No Women?" which had the audience in stitches. Fort Worth Men's Chorus did a decent job on "You Raise Me Up" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" among others. As the next group, Men's Voices Milwaukee, took the stage I asked Gary if he recognized anyone from his days at Marquette. He didn't think so. MVM did a rousing rendition of "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor", which was surprisingly popular this Festival, and chose the Lauridsen "Dirait-on" for their French piece, an excellent choice in my opinion.
Next came Van's chorus, the Rainbow Chorus of Waterloo-Wellington. All around an excellent performance, especially on the Broadway numbers ("Razzle Dazzle" from Chicago and "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera), "Rise With Pride" which was composed by a member of the chorus, and the Beatles medley "Love Is All You Need". Bravo, Van!
The block closed with Glória, the Irish choir, with highlights including the North American premiere of their version of the "Irish Blessing" (in Irish of course), and the haunting "She Moved Through The Fair".
As there wasn't a great deal of time for dinner, we decided each of us would get our own dinner from the food court, with one of us waiting with all our stuff while the others went to get food. This was complicated by the fact that most of the places in the food court operate on a cash basis and do not accept plastic. But we all managed to eat and get back to the hall at a reasonable time.
This block we all settled on Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Sotto Voce (an ensemble from One Voice Charlotte) opened with "Up The Ladder To The Roof", winning approval from me if not from Dennis, and did the overture to The Barber of Seville as "The Farmer of Seville", in a vocalise style with barnyard animal sounds instead of doo-wah's. The Windy City Slickers did a mean "Bohemian Rhapsody" followed by a medley of top hits from 1979. Cantaria did a credible job on a wide assortment of music, but it was the Los Angeles Choral Artists who impressed me very much, not with any one piece but with a crisp, clean sound across languages and genres of music.
Following them was the Buffalo GMC, with a commissioned work based on six Walt Whitman poems, Adamic Songs. Each individual piece was just lovely but I concur with Gary that all six, one after the other, become rather ponderous. Even so, I say great job, guys.
The Rainbow Chorus of Delaware chose a set comprised of medleys from Porgy and Bess, Seussical, and of course Hairspray. And for a rousing finale, we heard the Lavender Light Gospel Choir do what they do best -- and for the most part the audience was dancing in the aisles. So what if they ran over a bit.
After such a full day of music there wasn't much left to do but head for bed. We all had a long day to come.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Except it's unfair to the other groups, of course ;)