Seattle Men's Chorus concert

[bigmacbear]

gmjambear and I attended the Seattle Men's Chorus concert (with special guest Ann Wilson of Heart) last night at Benaroya Hall. I expect to audition for the chorus in January.

Production-wise the SMC holiday concert is on a different level from Rochester. It's a much bigger hall and many more performances (six, including a preview last Saturday in Everett -- about an hour north of downtown Seattle -- as opposed to two in Rochester). It was a very pleasant mix of the serious and the silly, the sacred and the secular.

Highlights:
* Benaroya Hall has an impressive organ, with the console high up in front of the pipe case and reached by a hidden stairway. It was put to most effective use throughout the concert, culminating in the last number on the program which was "Christus Natus Est" set to the "Toccata" from Charles-Marie Widor's Symphony No. 5, which I recall hearing as a child being used as a recessional by our church organist.
* "See Amid the Winter's Snow" was performed by the Chorus quodlibet with a small subgroup at the back of the hall singing "Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming".
* An impressive commissioned work, "Forn Jól", featured three soloists and the Chorus in haunting Icelandic which almost sounded as though it belonged in the score of a film from the frozen North.
* Ann Wilson did three numbers: "Sand", with a friend on guitar and doing backup vocals, regarding another friend lost to AIDS; "Mary", with the Chorus, envisioning Mary as a modern-day mother dealing with the sorts of things modern mothers do; and later, a piece with Captain Smartypants providing the backup.
* The second act opened with over 200 singing elves and "Tevye Claus", singing "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof with a few tweaks for the Christmas season. This act continued with the "Hip Hop Santa Bop" and "The Elves' Broadway Christmas" (with Christmas-carol lyrics set to popular showtunes including "Seasons of Love" from Rent).
* The concert closed with an encore of "Silent Night" performed by instrumentalists on piano, organ, oboe, and percussion (and, at the end, Schroeder's toy piano) while the Chorus signed the lyrics along with the ASL interpreter and Charlie Brown and Linus discussed the meaning of Christmas.

All in all, an impressive performance. Unfortunately it ran rather late (until about ten to eleven PM) and on a weekday evening, so we didn't get the chance to chat with the chorus members we've met at GALA functions and such.