Music

Virtual Messiah

Image | | edwinridout

The Fredericksburg Community Chorus’s 51st annual Messiah had to be virtual. Although last year’s 50th performance was the complete Messiah, this year’s may have been the least complete (under 30 minutes!) See it on YouTube here. The anonymity of my preferred seat in the back row seemed somewhat diminished, as surely I must have spent at least a few moments under the director’s microscope. But the number of singers grew due to collaboration with the Williamsburg United Methodist choir. Photo by Elspeth.

Music last weekend

| edwinridout

4-1-2014 9-05-23 AM

A higher-priority item on my calendar this weekend — the Charlottesville Ten Miler — took place before the three musical events, but will have to be written up later.

Attended the U Mary Washington Philharmonic concert Saturday. Heard Itzhak Perlman play the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Terrific! And the orchestra sounded better than I’ve ever heard them.

Sunday, sang my second ever solo in church. (A few years ago, I sang If Thou Be Near, being enamoured of Kirsten Flagstad: If Thou Be Near) This time it was Wilt Thou Forgive, a John Donne poem. I listened many times to one done by a baritone to lute accompaniment (which I actually paid for), and really enjoyed. There’s one done by a boy soprano here: Connor Burrowes: Wilt Thou Forgive

Our choral society’s annual spring gala “Just Jazz” (dinner/concert) was held Sunday.
We sold 98 of the 100 tickets — I think there were ten tables with ten $75 seats, and I didn’t notice any vacant. Here’s what we did:
5:15 p.m. SET 1

    Afro Blue — instruments only
    Medley 1: When I fall in Love, Dundee Frim Fram Sauce, Carla My Funny Valentine, Adrienne
    Duet: It Don’t mean a thing: Pam and Dawn Able
    Medley 2: You Belong to Me, Regina Someone to Watch over me, Jenny, Love me or Leave me, Sarah
    Small Group: The Way you Look Tonight

5:45 ish SET 2

    Pass me the Jazz — small group
    Words—small group
    Do you feel the rhythm — SoundCheck (in audience)
    Linus and Lucy
    Summertime

6:45 SET 3

    Your Cheatin’ Heart — Women only
    Love is here to stay — Women only
    Take 5
    You’d be so nice to come home to
    Ain’t that a kick

7:35 SET 4

    James Bond Theme — Men only
    Sweet Georgia Brown — Men only
    Sway
    Ain’t Misbehavin’
    All the Cats Join in
    Encore—Ain’t that a Kick (just the finale)

Sandy said the best small group number was the Don’t Mean a Thing mother and daughter duet. After the men’s Sweet Georgia Brown, I thought the men’s director’s wry grin hinted that we blew it. SoundCheck is the auditioned subgroup of our “y’all come” choir. Pass Me the Jazz was its most ambitious piece, evidently too ambitious for the whole group so it was done as a subgroup of the subgroup, so I was not in that.

Of the whole-group numbers, I think my favorite and the one I think we did the best was Ain’t Misbehavin’. Linus and Lucy went pretty well. It was a clear favorite of all those lovers of the cartoon characters, something I never could understand. The James Bond theme had a similar strangeness for me, until one of the altos mentioned Pierce Brosnan and I realized he must be the source of much of the bass lyrics, “baaaaaaaaaaaah, baaaaaaaaaaaah, baaaaaaaaaaaah.”

There may be a photo or two later.

Saw two operas Thursday night

| edwinridout

Sneaked over to the opposition last night to see two Puccini operas done by Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival at the new opera house in Manassas. See below to hear the most famous aria from the second opera, Gianni Schicchi.

Of the two, I liked the first one the best: Il Tabarro (the cloak), a love story tragedy with a grisly ending. The set was most of the front part of a cargo ship, moored at a dock on the Seine. It was very well done, and I enjoyed all aspects of it. None of the music was familiar to me, but I could see the supertitles screen and I had read the synopsis, so I was able to follow the story well. Here’s a clip from Il Tabarro on the Castleton Festival website.

Intermission must have been a good half hour, so it had to be around 10pm before the second one started, and I’d been up since 4am. This was in the new Hylton Performing Arts Center at the Manassas campus of George Mason University, only 45 minutes’ drive from home. My first thought was that I’d got the worst seat in the house, but it was good in parts. I did have to hang onto the rail most of the way through the first opera for fear of falling four storeys into the orchestra pit. On the other hand, disregarding the altitude, nobody was closer to the action except the conductor (LM himself). I could see his score, although as my new glasses have not yet arrived, I couldn’t recognize the printing as music. My seat was a real chair, very comfortable, not bolted to the floor, and quite private, being hidden from the rest of the audience by a pillar. I guess that’s why it was box seating.

But that comfort began to be a bit of a problem about a half hour into Gianni Schicchi and I caught myself dozing off more than once. There are a lot more characters in this one, and I wasn’t able to keep them straight nor keep up with the supertitles. This is a farce about greed, performed in I suppose fifties dress, and I found it too silly. I did not sleep through that famous aria though. You can hear Kiri te Kanawa sing that on YouTube: O mio babbino caro