...That was the name of Tom's favorite of the many choral numbers our choir performed in our first-of-three Christmas shows last night. It also turns out that a 50-something first tenor female who can sing a lot of rather complicated music, much of it in latin, mostly from memory for almost two hours can forget when exACTly to lead her half of the choir up to the stage during the opening processional. Who knew?
There are about 100 of us, mostly-boomer types working our heads off for an extremely gifted and experienced boy wonder (25-ish) with high expectations, and Tom said it showed. From Saint Saens (Christmas Oratorio) to Berlin (White Christmas) to Victoria (O Magnum Mysterium), and the rest, I loved all the music Ryan (Murphy) chose for us. I wasn't sure if such a large group could pull off some of the jazz chords or medieval sounds, but we did.
We were accompanied by a small orchestra, large organ (played by a small person) and a harp, though there were three a capella numbers (my personal favorites!). We carried electric candles into a darkened hall, singing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel to begin the evening, made only slightly less magical by the director glaring pointedly at one oblivious singer who was enjoying it so much, she totally forgot to continue "pro-cessing" up to the stage in order that everyone could be in their spots by the end of the song. Oops. She'll do better tonight!
It's been a joy to sing and meet new folks, this autumn. We had a glorious time in Sacramento singing Beethoven's Ninth, and I loved the two evenings I spent in Auburn earlier this week singing "The Messiah" with the Auburn Symphony (Tom joined in on the fun Tuesday night for that performance). All because I finally swallowed my fear of auditioning last August. Now, I'm very excited for it all to start up again after the New Year.
So, we still have tonight and tomorrow afternoon, the end of seven straight days of music. I just saw a few snowflakes flutter by the window--the first of the season. By tomorrow, and through the rest of this week, we're supposed to drop into the 20s and 30s and get some decent snowfall. So, it seems that we could actually be singing "White Christmas" during, well, you know!
Here are the photos Tom took last night. There's me, with my red rose and white pearls. And there we are loading ourselves into our places a little more quickly than usual, having gotten a late start (I'm standing at the top just to the left of the blond lady). And then there we are, all in place, ready to rock!
Here's hoping that, whereever you are, you are enjoying the music you love this time of year!
