Montreal, part sept

[bigmacbear]

Friday, July 23

In which the Rochester women perform, Dennis and I sing in the Basilica de Notre-Dame with the Festival Chorus, Gary takes in an Expos game, and Bear Soup II occurs.

The morning began with an 8 AM technical rehearsal for the Men's Festival Chorus at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. From there we went to the Hyatt and rehearsed some more. By the time we were done there we were fairly hungry, so Gary, Dennis, a fellow named Owen from the Columbus GMC, and I had lunch at a restaurant in Complexe Desjardins (not the food court) called Baton Rouge (or, as our friend Pat who is originally from Louisiana would put it, "Red Stick"). Lunch was excellent and we planned on making it a nice big one, not knowing whether we'd get to eat much for dinner due to time constraints.

In the time we had left before Gary and I were to work the RGMC table at the Expo, I did some shopping: CDs of the Rainbow Voices of Toronto and of Singing Out! Toronto, a Festival long-sleeved T-shirt (I wanted one from the London GMC that read "England's Biggest Boy Band" but they had run out of my size), and the two from Glória I mentioned in yesterday's post. Dennis had meanwhile gone back to the hotel to change for the evening performance. We all missed the Non-Talent Show with the Strangerettes (featuring bassbehr and mrh745i), but Dennis did offer to spell me for the last 20 minutes at the booth so I could change clothes, and on my way back from the hotel I saw most of the Strangerettes on their return to the hotel. Ours was the last block RGMC chose to staff the booth, so we helped Jim and Elier pack up and tear down.

We had to see the Rochester Women's Community Chorus perform before we left for the Basilica concert, so we got to Thetre Maisonneuve as soon as we could, taking in the Standard 4's rendition of "Wedding Bell Blues" and No More Silence, with yet another rendition of "Up The Ladder...". ('Nuff said.) Another writer suggested it would be interesting if No More Silence were to program 4'33" by John Cage. ;-)
The Rochester women were fabulous in their GALA international festival debut. They opened with "Make Them Hear You", which prompted Debbie, their director, to say "So many other choruses have programmed this piece that we'd like to make it a sing-along." Which they did. ;-) Then, as Pam Good, one of their sopranos, ducked off for a costume change, Dennis remarked, "Pam is leaving the stage. Be afraid. Be very afraid." Pam ended up playing Cruella DeVil in the eponymous song from 101 Dalmations, snatching a stuffed dog from another chorus member. It was a scream, although I couldn't get anyone else to join me in starting a chorus of "Who Let The Dogs Out" like I wish I'd planned to do in Cincinnati when Pam actually got down on all fours and started barking in one number. Great job, ladies!

It was now time to take our leave of the concert hall to get to the Basilica in time for call. Gary stayed for the end of the set, then took off to see the Expos game against Florida. Dennis and I stopped for ice cream and sherbet and managed to finish our cones by the time we emerged from the underground passages leading south from Place-des-Arts through Complexe Desjardins and Complexe Guy-Favreau. The Basilica was another block south from there, past the Place-D'Armes Metro station which is attached to a big modern firehouse (which just so happened was required to send some trucks out on a fire run just as we'd passed it). Although a film crew had been using the street beside the Basilica they had wrapped for the day. We stopped in and checked out names and pictures of the pastors dating back to the 17th century when the place was built. A short technical rehearsal proved interesting as the acoustics of the place were just marvelous (not to mention the visual aspects).

By the time we took the stage it was clear the concert was and would continue to be a sensation. The place was packed; so much so that after our performance of "Into the Fire", "I Believe", and "When I Hear Music", Dennis and I snuck upstairs for better seats for the Jubilation Gospel Choir of Montreal who followed up the Festival Choruses. They were phenomenal, the more so when their director called all the Festival Choristers to the stage to sing with them. Dennis was a bit nonplused by this, but I got into it a bit even if I could not get the lyrics (the sound system seemed to swallow up what their director tried to teach us). All in all it was a very good performance in a fabulous space.

As we left we saw Van (vaneramos) and Danny (djjo) and they headed off to Bear Soup. I recalled Gary saying he was thinking of going there after the game, so I told Van and Danny they would probably see him before I did. (I was right.) Dennis and I had iced tea and cheesecake at Cafe Delifrance and headed for bed. Early in the morning Gary joined me, having seen a very successful Bear Soup II come and go. I sort of wished I'd gone but there would be too much to do the next day.