Elijah Huge Success!

Gregory Dahl

I have forgotten to post that the Elijah Concert was a huge success!  Sold out house!  The soprano, Tracy Dahl, was sparkling and sang with such drama one felt as though we were in an opera!  The tenor, Kurt Lehmann, sang with such lyricism and strong diction one felt proud to be part of anything he was in, Kirsten Schellenberg, alto, was solid as always, the boy soprano, Anton Sokalski (son of Tracy Dahl) was pure and divine, but the ELIJAH, who I almost forgot was Gregory Dahl, as it seemed the prophet had appeard amongst us - albeit in a tux.   Mr. Dahl was ELIJAH -" Thou art Elijah" I almost shouted at him, and watched him carefully at the post concert reception to see when the fiery chariots would take him away to heaven! 
Our conductor, Yuri Klaz, was so full of passion it was oozing out all over the place.  He did an excellent job at weaving the orchestra, soloists and choir together to tell this very dramatic story.  The venue, was a cathedral, so it offered the audience a much more intimate feeling than had it been performed in a concert hall.  I think this led to the excitement in the air.  As choristers, we could also see the faces of the audience and they fed so much emotion back to us that one could not help but get into the character we were to be playing at any given time.  Yuri Hooker's solo cello line in the "It is enough" bass solo, was so beautiful that I wished I were in the audience and could allow myself to be swallowed up in it instead of having to remain somewhat alert for performance.
A memorable line from our conductor at our last minute rehearsal was, "Altos, you are watching me and yet you are behind the sopranos."    To myself I thought, "Well, obviously the sopranos must be ahead of your beat."  I of course, said nothing, and feeling duly chastised I tried to remember to push the tempo throughout performance and I think all went well.  

First Orchestra Rehearsal

Last night we met with the orchestra for the first time to tackle Mendelssohn's Elijah.  I was surprised by several things:
1.  Several Principal Symphony players were in attendance including Gwen Hoebig, Yuri Hooker, and Daniel Scholz.
2.  My daughter's high school strings instructor was present in the Cello section.
3.  The conductor did not appear stressed and last but not least...

4. That  I was there at all since I spent the day in bed with waves of nausea. 

The reason I hauled myself out of bed to attend was that since I am only an associate member of the choir I am not sure how secure my physical spot in the front row between N and S really is.  I did not want to show up at dress rehearsal on Saturday having lost this spot from which I feel I can do my best singing.  Secondly, I wanted to hear last minute markings first hand.

Being sick and void of any  nourishment I could not stand for much of the rehearsal and when I did stand I felt I would fall on to the horn section directly below me.  Surprisingly, my voice was in okay shape but my timing was somewhat off so I made blunders that I have not made in previous rehearsals.  There are now different voices behind me than in our rehearsal venue so I had a whole new perspective on the pieces; not all of it positive.  In some ways this semi-professional choir is not all that different from the church choir I sing in.  Some sloppy singing still abounds this close to  performance, some markings have still been missed which drives our conductor crazy, and basses are still heard to ask, "What page are we on?"

I am thankful I am not in charge of anything for this event.  I just show up and sit quietly in my chair while the stage manager, a brave woman, has to arrange all of us in the best possible manner as she tried to solve the problems of altos without chairs, two choristers whose chairs fell through the platform leaving them on the floor, first sopranos sitting with the altos and more.  She handled all of this with a smile as I realized she is the right person for the job. 

Tomorrow the soloists will be there and they will certainly add more than enough sparkle to the event to help the choir take it up a notch or two.  By Sunday's performance we will all peak together to provide a magical few hours.  Hopefully, I will feel somewhat better by then.

Bach St. John Passion Performance

     Our local newspapers chose not to review this concert, it seems.  I, at least, have not seen one and this surprises me as I thought they would want to document Jane Glover's WSO evening.
     From my perspective I was happy to have performed the "wohin" section in Aria No. 24 and come out of it unscathed.  I was quite exhilarated by the fact that I did not miss a single one nor did I add in any extra "wohins".  I feel I could take this show on the road, so if you need a Wohinner I'm your alto.   
     In Chorus No. 23 "Wir haben keinen Konig" my companion and I were the only ones to come in on time singing out the "WIR" but to our chagrin no one else came in so it looked like we were wrong.  I was relieved when a tenor approached me after the concert to say, "you know you were right on that entry in No. 24, I didn't come in since she didn't look up at the choir"  He was right about that, the conductor did not cue us for this entry as she had been doing for all the others but I still did not appreciate being left high and dry in front of all those people singing "WIR" as a duet. 
     Backstage, prior to concert, Ms. Glover came to address the choir which not all conductors do.  She said she knew she had not paid us much attention in the dress rehearsal and that was because we were actually quite good and she had other things to attend to.  However, she wanted us to be
1.  more sneering in "sei gegrusset"
2. more ugly in Kreuzige
3. more personal in the Chorales
4.  more lawyer-like in the Hohenpriester choruses

     I think the choir managed to fulfill all 4 requests but since there is not the benefit of a post mortem with her I cannot be sure. 
   The Concert Hall was not sold out and this was a bit of a downer when we first get out there and saw the empty seats but once the orchestra began to weave the magic of the opening chorus started I forgot about that.

     I am not a musician so my opinion will not mean much but I thought the continuo was so well done by our principal cellist, Yuri Hooker, and the oboe playing was absolutely divine.  Principal oboist, Bede Hanley was sitting within arm's reach of me and I was basking in the sound. 
Soloists, Lawrence Wiliford, Christopheren Nomura, Karina Gauvin and German born Eva Vogel all did their parts well.  Although Bach really does not give the solo women much to do, the arias they do sing are gorgeous.    
      So that is another Easter concert season finished.  Advent seems a long way off.