Day Nine - Cincinnati May Festival

Covington, Kentucky'd Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, along with the May Festival Youth Chorus during warmups.

There will more video and some stills of the Cathedral in a later entry.

Memorial Day -- Taste of Cincinnati 2009

(with apologies for its shakiness -- Dramamine may be required)

Day Seven - Cincinnati May Festival

After all the rehearsing, it was about time for a concert. We were joined by the May Festival Youth Chorus for Mozart's Requiem.

Just prior to going on stage, it was also time for service awards. The two big boxes were for a soprano and a tenor who had each achieved 35 years of service in the chorus. The little boxes were service pins for those have served 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years, and there were also 30 year awards.

I received my 25 year pin (a small gold pin with the festival's logo set with an emerald) two years ago. I'm very proud of it, needless to say.

The hall was filled with festive concertgoers, and it was fun, as usual, to watch the tuxedo-and-fancy-dress-crowd come down the Music Hall aisles. They're not as over the top as they were back in the early 80's when I first joined the chorus, but some people still dress up and it's a nice thing to see.

I don't have much to report about the concert, except that it went extremely well, and both reviewers loved the concert.

Day Six - Cincinnati May Festival

Day Six (Thursday) was the dress rehearsal for Friday’s opening night. Both choruses (youth and adult) assembled on a crowded stage (there were over 200 of us in total) and Conlon ran through the entire Mozart Requiem without stopping – which may be a first in the 27 festivals I’ve sung in). He apparently was pleased.

Apparently Patti LuPone “graciously” acquiesced to let us sit in on her rehearsal after all. Bob told us that we could go out into the hall and listen, but that “I’ll be backstage, and we have a lot of work to do.”

I went out into the hall. LuPone’s concert opening, Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, was a neat performance and I really liked the music. I’m not totally certain that her range was suitable for the piece, but it was still entertaining. The male quartet was terrific (Rodrick Dixon, John Aler, Jeremy Kelly, and James Creswell,), performing with great wit and style.

After that was over, I went back into the freezing rehearsal hall (it felt like a refrigerator back there) where a portion of the chamber choir was working on the Vaughan Williams piece for Sunday’s Basilica concert. It still needs work. We will assemble early on Sunday afternoon to clean up some errant bass notes here and there and it will be fine by concert time.

Day Five - Cincinnati May Festival

Wednesday was the first orchestra rehearsal of Luisa Miller. It was pretty uneventful. Conlon was considerate enough to do the choral parts first,so we were done very quickly.

The soloists for the production are excellent. They are Annalisa Raspagliosi, Stefano Secco, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Rodrick Dixon (one of the “Three Mo’ Tenors), James Creswell, Stephen Powell and Catherine Keen. Secco and Raspagliosi are marvelous together. Even though I’m no fan of opera, I love hearing this bunch sing. They are having a good time, and it shows.

When the soloists were introduced to the orchestra and chorus, everyone applauded the heroes and hissed or booed the villains. It was fun.

The only worthy-of-note Bob-ism of the night was a comment during the warm up before we went on stage. A soprano started a coughing fit, and was told, “No, we’re doing La Boheme tomorrow night. Tonight is Luisa Miller.”

After the orchestra rehearsal, we retired to the rehearsal room and worked on Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht. I think that’s all we did – but I’m beginning to get a little loopy from lack of sleep (my cat disappeared for 24 hours, and I was getting up every hour or so to look for her), so I’m not really sure.

Day Four - Cincinnati May Festival

No photos today. The rehearsal was a shorter one, although pretty intense.

The youth chorus joined us on stage for the first orchestra run-through of the Mozart Requiem. We ran it, with only a couple of repeats. Conlon wanted to move on the second half of the program, with Patti LuPone's stuff -- Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins.

As Conlon told us the other night, her manager won't permit anyone to be in the hall while she's rehearsing, which is really irritating. Shades of Kathleen Battle! I have very little patience with divas.

After all, WE (the festival) are her employers and she is a GUEST performer at OUR festival. To not be permitted to see her performance in rehearsal is insulting. Despite Conlon's promise that we can see the real performance (as opposed to the rehearsal), we've been told that is not possible, as there is no time to get us from the hall at intermission in time to warm up and get on stage for the second half of the evening.

Conlon says he's working on her, but I doubt that we'll see her. I'll have to ask someone who was in the audience to find out how it went.

Grrr.

After the Mozart the Youth Chorus had a quick meeting in a large dressing room about their schedule for the rest of the festival, the Chamber Choir went into the rehearsal hall to work on Sunday's concert stuff, and everybody else went home -- and it was only 8:00 pm (we started at six).

We went through most of the Brahms Zigeunerlieder, finishing at 9:30.

It's good to have the extra half hour.

And, with a tip of the hat to Mr. Pepys, so to bed.

Day Three - Cincinnati May Festival

There was only one three-hour rehearsal on Day Three, so there's a little less fodder for blogging than the first two days offered.








It was Miller time again, and we worked through the entire opera. In the first chorus, an entire Italian village is somehow in the tiny house of Luisa and her father, wishing Luisa a happy birthday. We play the village. After we finished the section, Conlon's comment was, "That was charming, lovely and most of it in tune!"

Joining us was Rebekah Camm, a pretty darned good soprano who sings the role of Laura. Here's a very little bit of her voice:

The only other Conlon bon mot worth sharing was in reference to working with soloists and being where you're supposed to be at the right time: "Do not depend on any soloists ever. They are paid the big bucks to not sing in any tempo known to man."















Good choruses hit their marks, tempo-wise, regardless of any screwups on the part of soloists. We had that situation in the Brahms Requiem this past season, when the bass screwed up and finished a measure or so early. His ending was our cue, but we waited to enter until it was the right time -- it would have been so easy to follow him and mess everything up.

The rehearsal was pretty uneventful otherwise. It closed with a 30-minute retelling of the story of the opera, which, in my opinion, is silly beyond measure. Conlon, after all, is an opera conductor and loves the genre, and he manages to extract all sorts of deeper meanings out of the characters and plots. At least he tells the story in an entertaining fashion.

Conlon's daughter, Luisa, was conceived, so the story goes, the night we performed this opera in May of 1988 (the only other time he's conducted it), and is named Luisa. She is apparently as sick of hearing about that as we are.

Since the evening was otherwise uneventful, I'll close with some more photos taken during the evening.

Day Two - Cincinnati May Festival

Day two got under way with a Chamber Choir rehearsal of the Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor. Bob tried out various combinations of voices for the solo parts. One young soprano had a laser-like focus and would be perfect, although I think Bob may prefer one of the older sopranos with a little more warmth in their tone. We'll see.

We also worked on the "solo" part of the Schubert Hirtenchor, from the incidental music for Rosamunde, and then the chamber choir women prepared the Suscepit Israel section of the Bach Magnificat. It is meltingly beautiful, and I love singing it.

Next, the rest of the chorus arrived, and it was Miller time (Luisa Miller, that is). We went through most, if not all of it, with Ignacio, James Conlon's assistant, serving as vocal coach. (Later on, Conlon told of his recent conducting experience in Bologna, where he spent time with Ignacio's family in Palermo -- apparently with all the aunts, uncles, cousins and the rest of the clan.)

Toward the end of the opera, there is a lot singing, with the chorus interjecting here and there. Since we jump around in the score during rehearsals, we often don't understand the full musical (or dramatic) context in which we're singing. So, at the end of this tragic opera, when we all sang a rousing "Ahhhhhhhhh!" in a major key to end the piece, Bob started jumping up and down on the podium, shouting a soon-to-be-immortal Bob-ism, "Everybody's dead! That's got to be a minor chord!"

Here are some assorted scenes from the opera rehearsal in which the men's section improves on a section that had been rehearsed only once, weeks before. Also note the "visiting" male soprano in the last scene:

After the opera, we worked through the Bach Magnificat. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. We've had two rehearsals on the piece, and it's been a couple of months since the last one. Bob commented, "That was fantastic. A chorus this big has no business doing Bach -- but you're proving that wrong."

There was one more priceless Bob-isms during the Bach. There are long melismas throughout the piece (a melisma happens when one syllable of a word has multiple notes -- in baroque music there are many, many, many notes in long, complex runs), and it's necessary to keep the rhythm precise so that all the parts line up appropriately. We often start moving our bodies or tapping our feet to keep time. Bob's comment to the tenors and basses: "I'd like to see that again, more connected this time, and with minimal head movement."

At six, we broke for dinner.

After dinner, the 130 voices of the adult chorus were joined by the 80 or so members of the May Festival Youth Chorus to work on the Mozart Requiem. This chorus is made up of an amazing group of high schoolers from all around the region -- Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. They are the best of the best.

This is their 20th season. The ensemble was formed to give young singers the opportunity to perform in a professional musical environment, and they sing regularly throughout the season with the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops, and at solo concerts throughout the region -- in addition to their performances at the May Festival. They sing one Music Hall May Festival concert each year with the adult chorus, and also shine on their own at the concert at Covington's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

Their director is Dr. James Bagwell, who used to be one of us back when he was one of Bob's doctoral conducting students at Indiana University. He is currently Director of the Music Program at Bard College in New York, and also is Director of Choruses for the Bard Music Festival, Music Director of the New York Repertory Singers, conductor of the Berkshire Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra.

He says the Cincinnati group is the best of the bunch. Most of them go on to college to study music, and there are many musical careers that start in the Youth Chorus. They are amazing.

Conlon arrived to conduct this part of the rehearsal. The evening opened up with Bob telling of the last time he called James. "I never know where he's going to be when I call him." The last call reached Conlon in Bologna, from which he informed Bob that the waitress at their favorite restaurant there was gone.

Conlon makes some bizarrely funny faces when he's trying to get us to sound the way he wants, and has some interesting phrases, as well. He told the sopranos at one point, "I want to get your passagios in order," and when the tenors weren't singing as lustily as he would have liked, he said (not intentionally), "Tenors, the ball's in your court." (Snickers all around the alto section.)

A chorus member had the quip of the evening. Conlon was talking about some short pick up notes that weren't getting the proper emphasis, so he commented that "short notes are important, too."

The alto next to me turned to me and said, "It not the size of the note -- it's what you do with it."

Day One - Cincinnati May Festival

The first day went rather well.

In the shower, I listened to Robert Porco's interview on WVXU, during which he said nice things about our chorus and told a little of his interesting life story. I had to wait to rinse the shampoo out of my hair so that I didn't miss a word.

At Music Hall, the morning began with coffee and donuts (my favorite: custard-filled and covered with chocolate).

The group sang Happy Birthday to all of us who have birthdays in May and June, and then after everyone started to wake up and get down to business, we started off at 10:00 am by giving each other backrubs and then the vocal warmups began.

By 10:10, we were digging deep into the Mahler 8th. By lunchtime, at 1:00 pm, we had done 90% of the music. There is a women's section left to do, but otherwise, we're about as ready as we're going to be. Considering that we've only rehearsed the second movement once before, I'm impressed.

The word is that the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, who will be joining us for the Mahler performance, has been rehearsing nothing but the Mahler for weeks -- and Bob made them all sing it for him in quartets last week -- almost a reaudition. All this, while we've been working on the Mahler on a limited basis, along with works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Verdi, Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams and Brahms.

Maybe it's easier to blow off preparing when you only have one thing to work on. We have so much to learn in such a short time that we have to do a lot of work outside of rehearsals just to keep up.

At lunchtime, I went to the box office to get tickets for my daughter Alex and her boyfriend, Justin. They will attend all four Music Hall concerts, as well as the concert at Covington's Basilica. Justin's mom, Cheryl, will join them for the last two.

Ouch. It cost $343 for the 12 tickets, after my chorus discount. I told Alex about the expense, and she commented, "Doesn't it make you appreciate the Know Theatre's $12 seats?" Always marketing...

Lunch was the standard catered buffet with sandwich makings, salads, and fruit.

Then it was back the rehearsal room, working on Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, which is something about Druids and the slaughtering of children and the peasants storming the gates with pitchforks and something called "klapperstucken" (there should be an umlaut on that "u" but I don't have one handy).

Both the women and the men were recipients of Bob-isms.

During a women's chorus, Bob asked, "Can you be more pathetic?"

My first reaction, was, "Sure. We've often been pretty pathetic!" But he was asking for pathos, since we were singing about the murder of our children.

At one point in a men's chorus, the men were singing along, but not making much of an impression of the anger I think they were supposed to be expressing.

Bob commented, "Come, on guys, dotted rhythms are macho!"

Apparently that comment caused an immediate rise in testosterone levels, because the next time they opened their mouths, it was definitely a male chorus. Of course, the women were hooting and hollering and clapping to beat the band -- along with lots of laughter. Now we know what it takes to get them to sing like men.

Once we finished the Mendelssohn we worked on a movement of the Bach Magnificat, the Beethoven Hallelujah (from The Mount of Olives), and two choruses from Schubert's incidental music from Rosamunde.

Five o'clock had arrived, and we headed for home.

Day two begins on Sunday, May 17 at 1:45 with a rehearsal of the Chamber Choir, who will be joined by the regular chorus at 3:00 pm. Dinner will be at 6:00 and from 7:00 to 10:00, we'll rehearse the Mozart Requiem with the May Festival Youth Chorus. If James Conlon's plane arrives as scheduled, he'll lead that rehearsal.

It's about ready to begin again

OK, folks. Tomorrow is the first day of the 16-day marathon known as the Cincinnati May Festival. As a member of the May Festival Chorus, I will have no more free time (after tonight) until June. We will prepare for five performances on May 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30 by giving up every evening and all our weekends, dedicating ourselves to choral music.

As I did last year, I'll keep you all informed of the goings-on and any drama that comes up (I'm sure it will -- we're in the world of divas, after all).

Final Round of Photos

The Roman Baths at Bath

Longdon on Tern, Shropshire

Ironbridge, Shropshire

Bridgnorth, Shropshire

Round Three

The City of Bath

Bath Abbey

Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral

Stonehenge

Second Round of Videos

The Tower of London

The Imperial War Musem

The Houses of Parliament

First four videos - London

Around London

Westminster & Vicinity

The City

The British Museum