The Best of the Rest - The Cincinnati May Festival Wraps Up

Days Eight Through Sixteen

They were crazy days.

Day Eight began with a 9:30 am rehearsal for that evening’s concert performance of Verdi’s opera, Luisa Miller, and ended, of course, with the performance.

Day Nine gave me a chance to sleep in, thankfully. There was a dress rehearsal at Covington, Kentucky’s Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption that began at two, with the concert at eight. We (the Chamber Choir) followed the Youth Chorus with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, and Brahm’s Zigeunerlieder (Gypsy songs).





Day Ten was a holiday, thankfully, so I had the entire day to rest up, since rehearsal didn’t begin until seven.

Days Eleven and Twelve involved more evening rehearsals with the orchestra.

Cleveland Chorus Arrives

On Day Thirteen, Thursday, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus arrived, and there was a piano rehearsal with them of the repertoire for Saturday’s concert that began at four. That was followed by a seven o’clock dress rehearsal for Friday’s concert.

Day Fourteen was a little crazy. There was an eleven am rehearsal on stage with all 500 performers for Saturday’s concert, and our chorus alone assembled in the evening with the orchestra to perform a variety of choral works by Handel, Beethoven, Schumber, Bach and Mendelssohn.





Day Fifteen, Saturday morning, began with a dress rehearsal of Mahler’s 8th. After a nap, all 500 of us assembled for the Mahler. God it was good. This was, I think, my seventh performance of the work, and this was by far the best.




The reviews were effusive:

Mahler a Magnificent Finale to May Festival

Mahler Makes Music Hall Sing

The best review of all:

Bob sent us an e-mail afterward (this is Bob, for whom to issue praise is difficult, saying, “Congratulations on a truly wonderful performance. As I sat in the upper reaches of the gallery, I found myself thinking, ‘This is how the piece should sound.’ Thank you.”

One fun thing was that Emily, a fellow alto, had two, count ‘em, TWO, offspring in the Cincinnati Children’s choir, who sang from the balcony.




The evening ended with the annual Amen party, which involves an open bar and a great buffet – for hundreds. Attendees include the performers, their families, chorus alumni, the board, and on and on and on. There were well over a thousand people being fed that night.












Day Sixteen was spent at the computer, while I put the finishing touches on my skit for that evening's May Festival Annual Dinner. It was a parody of Schubert's Hirtenchor from Rosamunde, which we had performed on Friday night. It was sung by those of us who had broken bones, had joint surgery, torn shoulders and the like during the past year. This version was performed by The Hurtin’ Chor. It was pretty well received.

Other skits included a puppet-based parody of the way James Conlon tell us opera stories each year, entitled, “Jimm’s Fairy Tales,” an alto skit about a Gospel church where the main text was the Gospel of Bob, and a funny PowerPoint presentation about the trials and tribulations of the committee that had to come up with new dress designs to replace the witch costumes we’ve worn for the past dozen years.


The Church of the Gospel of Bob:

So, another May Festival has come and gone. Already I miss everyone.