Day One - Cincinnati May Festival 2008

The first day of rehearsals went pretty well, I think. Things will get better and better as the rehearsals continue and we get into the groove.

I arrived about 9:15, and had a cup of tea and a couple cream cheese danish (danishes?). Our chorus administrator, Rosanne Wetzel, works hard to give us such amenities so that we can get through it all with a minimum of fuss. In the old days, we had to fend for ourselves, finding lunch or supper as needed, often making things at home and providing potluck. That was difficult to do considering the schedule, so the efforts of Rosanne and the support of our management to feed us are much appreciated.

A long conversation with Joe Hopper, the chief stagehand for the symphony, started off the morning as I finished my tea. He has been helpful to my daughter as she got into her theater career, helping her to join the stagehands union. He's an inveterate flirt, and an interesting guy. He's about to make two trips to China this summer as part of the Cincinnati Pops' appearances at the Olympics in August. One trip will be to go on ahead to scout out locations and plan the tour's logistics, and the second to go with the orchestra and make sure all the plans are followed. That's a huge responsibility, getting those priceless instruments and assorted equipment to the right place at the right time and in perfect condition.

To read more about Joe's past experiences getting the orchestra around the globe, click here.

Just before 10:00, I passed along a knitting catalog to a first-year alto, and settled into my seat. The chatter began to die down, and Robert Porco stepped on the podium to begin the warmup.

First order of business: backrubs. We turn to our right and massage the shoulders of the next chorister, until someone (usually on the far left, who's been doing all the work and getting no benefit) yells, "Switch!" Then we reverse direction and work on the singer to the left. I lucked out yesterday by being next to a massage therapist. Yum.

Then the vocal warmups began. Those are hard to describe without singing. We start by humming, which gets a buzz going in the bones in the front of the face. The hums change to "eeeee" sounds, and then to "ahhs." We work through the vowels and sing notes from low to high and back again, both legato and staccato. This gets all our vocal muscles in shape, and we start to focus on the proper breathing.

Then, it's "Have a seat and open the Bach to page 23." We worked our way through the Bach Cantata 191 (which is also the Gloria from the Mass in B Minor). We began with the Sicut erat, which goes like a bat out of hell, with long melismas (one syllable of a word that is stretched out over multiple different notes, often over many measures) to keep track of. Then we sang the Gloria. This was only the third time we'd sung the piece, and it will be the last time until the dress rehearsal with the orchestra a week from Thursday.

Just before the 11:30 break, we began the Faure Requiem. When we came back at from break we again started with the last movement and worked our way to the front. This was the second rehearsal on the piece, and again, the last one until dress rehearsal a week from Thursday.

We finished the Faure at 1:00, and it was time for lunch. We were treated to a nice catered lunch in the Corbett Tower on the third floor of Music Hall, and relaxed and chatted for a little bit, catching up. We don't often have a full hour to talk with each other, so it was a good hour. The lunch was very good, too. We ate our dessert first (Klondike bars) because we were afraid they'd melt if we waited. Someone said that you could die before dessert, so it's always a good idea to eat it first.

Then back downstairs. James Conlon had arrived from wherever he had been earlier in the week, along with his wife, Jennifer Ringo. Jennifer has been our French diction coach (via CD) this year for the upcoming performance of Berlioz' Romeo et Juliette, which we rehearsed in the afternoon session.

Bob ran through the piece, with James and Jennifer sitting at a table in the back, making comments on our French as appropriate. At one point, Bob looked back at them expectantly, and they were in deep conversation. Jennifer looked up and commented, "Oh, sorry. We were arguing over a vowel."

We began with the double and triple choruses of Part III. We were arrayed in two parts : Montagues on stage left, and Capulets on stage right. For the triple chorus, the top chorus members were scattered throughout. We got through all of that, and it was break time.

Then the women not in chamber choir were excused. As I did some work on a shawl I'm knitting, the men went through part II, which is men only, and finally, we got to part I. The men not in chamber choir were excused, and the last half an hour or so was chamber choir only, working through the introductory, chantlike scene-setting, followed by the lightning fast (152 beats per minute) "Mab chorus." Then, magically, if was five o'clock and we emerged into the blinding sunshine to head home.

I think the Sunday rehearsal will be of Verdi's opera, La forza del destino. However, we're also doing the Zeisl Requiem Ebraico and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony next weekend, so I think we should also work on those, too. We should have two orchestra rehearsals on each of those next week, as well, so that will take up most of next week.

I just show up and bring all my music, my water bottle, my knitting, and a book to read (just in case -- ha). Whatever they want us to rehearse, I'll be ready.