Star Wars in Concert - Cincinnati

Last night 60 members of Cincinnati's May Festival Chorus provided the vocals for the local appearance of the touring company of "Star Wars in Concert" at the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati.  It was a lot of fun.


(Apologies in advance for the quality of the photos.  All I had with me was my iPhone.)

Backstage, Anthony Daniels, the actor who portrayed C3PO in all six Star Wars movies (and who narrated the performance with great charm), came backstage to meet us.  One of our singers was using the downtime to write Christmas cards, and she was addressing one to a friend of hers who is a real Star Wars fan.  She wrote something on the card that told him where she was, and that would try to get Daniels to sign it.  She lost her nerve and didn't ask, but the woman next to her did..  Here are the photos of him reading and signing the card.
    





After we finished singing, we were given tickets to go out into the arena to hear the second half.  It was amazing. 

Here are some shots of the crowd, many of whom were in full Star Wars costume.  Light sabres were being brandished all over the hall.

    

Here are some shots of the concert in progress.  Incredible light show...


    
Finally, some kind soul in the audience took a video, which I found on YouTube this morning.  He or she happened to capture our second number, "Battle of the Heroes." so you can hear our tiny contribution.  Make sure you watch until the end.  The pyrotechnics were pretty cool. 


Actually, they weren't cool at all.  We could feel the heat all the way behind the orchestra.

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.

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 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).

Seeing More Clearly

The Champion Window installers came on Monday, and I was impressed. They replaced the window in the living room, the two windows in the front bedroom, and the patio door (the new one has little blinds between the panes of glass).

All that remains is the 8-foot wide window in my bedroom and the 4-foot wide window in the kitchen. That's another $1500, so will have to wait until I see that the tax refund looks like.

Champion was founded here in Cincinnati, and has become a national firm. Their reputation is pretty solid, and I saw why during the installation. The installers were polite, neat and thorough, and after the installation, explained the warranty in detail and gave me all the information I could ever want. Then they left, with a handshake and a "Thanks for using Champion."

Despite the cold outside, I've already noticed that the furnace isn't cycling on as frequently as usual, so I'm hoping that these energy-efficient windows will mean lower gas and electric bills.

I ran out the same night and bought new curtains for the living room and bedroom windows, and both rooms now have a new look. The yellow walls of the living room are now complemented with pale gold faux silk curtains with light cotton semi sheers underneath (they have a lovely lace border.). The bedroom, which has periwinkle walls, now has creamy damask balloon curtains.

The patio door will get a white wooden rod and white tabbed curtains eventually, replacing the former very 80's vertical blinds. The room is painted in two shades of yellow with white woodwork and a cobalt and gold border paper above the chair rail. I think the white curtains will look great, softening the expanse of glass in the doors, and will usually be open. There is a white wooden shelf about the door that has part of my teapot collection arrayed on it . There are 15 teapots, in shades of white, yellow, gold and blue.

Rehearsals started up again on Tuesday, and it was good to get back to music. We've begun to learn Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, and it's difficult. We have only 5 more rehearsals to learn it, so homework will be needed.

Also on Monday, I came back to work after the long break for the holidays. Things are still pretty quiet. I've got one major regulatory project mandated by the FDIC, as well as a number of small maintanance projects for an existing system. All our systems will continue to run for two years, as customers are going to be converted to the other bank's systems by geographic areas over the conversion period. Once they're all converted, we'll turn the switch and we'll all be together for real.

I'm not yet involved with any conversion projects, but I'm hoping that I will be -- which would mean continued employment for a while. This not knowing what's going to happen business is irritating. The other bank doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to approach such a massive integration of customers (they have 2.5 million accounts, we have 4 million) so we're doing most of the work, it appears. That's a good thing, and should keep some of us employed for a while. I hope I'm one of them.

Gilbert Kaplan and Mahler 2

Friday and Saturday night we (the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus ) performed the Mahler 2nd Symphony with Gilbert Kaplan and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The concerts went well.

It was a fun experience to work with Mr. Kaplan. He's a little stiff as a conductor, but his obvious passion for the work carried him through. The orchestra was little ragged here and there, but by and large, they did the piece justice.

The Mahler 2 is a wonderful thing, and even a bad performance of it is better than a great performance of many other works -- and this was not a bad performance by any stretch of the imagination. There are places in it that move me to tears every time I hear it.
Being able to sit on the stage and watch it being performed is a rare privilege. And a live performance is infinitely more exciting than any recording.

As a singer, my only problem with the piece is that after waiting for an hour and quarter, getting wrapped up in the splendor of it all, I always wonder if any sound will come out of our mouths when it's time to sing "Auf erstehen." Eventually the sound comes, but those anxious few seconds before it does are terrifying.

I've been lucky enough to perform the piece with several conductors. In my opinion, the best was with Jesus Lopez-Cobos. James Conlon, whose performances are usually more about James Conlon instead of about the music, does a fine job with the Mahler 2 as well.

Kaplan, on the other hand, has a metronome in his head and approaches the music almost scientifically, never taking a chance or varying his approach. The emotional content of the performance does not come from Kaplan -- it comes from the music itself. The music on the page, if played in time and together, can't really be screwed up. Mahler's genius will always come through.

As a conductor, Kaplan is OK. He is a precise conductor. From intense and in-depth research, he knows (or at least believes he knows) what Mahler's intentions were, and conducts accordingly. He set his precise tempos and interpretation, and the music and the musicians did the rest.

Under another conductor, it might have been more polished or more emotional, or more something else, but it was still Mahler's music and Mahler's genius that was the star of the show and you can't go wrong with that.

I feel privileged to have participated in the performance. I find it hard to understand how the mind of one man could generate such an incredible work.

Bravo to Mahler. Bravo to the orchestra. And Bravo to Gilbert Kaplan for loving the music and promoting it all over the world. His intriguing story brings new listeners to this wonderful piece.

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.

What We Go Through for Applause...

For 25 seasons, I've been part of the Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest choral festival in the Western Hemisphere (begun 1873) as a member of the official chorus (founded 1880). This year marks the 26th festival for me. It would have been 28 but I took a couple of breathers along the way since my first festival in 1981.

One of the aspects of the May Festival that makes it unique is that we do five completely different programs in a ten day period. We rehearse along the way during our "other season" (when we're the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras), but when May arrives, we're in for an intense couple of weeks.

That couple of weeks begins on this coming Saturday, with two three hour rehearsals. Sunday's schedule is pretty much the same, and there are nightly rehearsals Monday through Thursday. Friday is the first performance. Saturday morning, another rehearsal followed by a performance Saturday night. Sunday features a rehearsal and performance, as well. Then it's four more nightly rehearsals, with concerts Friday and Saturday with one final rehearsal Saturday morning.

On Sunday, we all get together and have a big dinner and perform skits for one another, singing even more. Then the withdrawal sets in, and we reacquaint ourselves with our families over the summer -- unless we choose to sing in some optional summer concerts at Riverbend Music Center.

It's difficult to communicate this experience to those who aren't part of this. Families don't get it, for sure. "Not tonight, I have rehearsal," is the common refrain.

So, over the next two weeks, starting Saturday night, I will attempt to chronicle this experience. Stayed tuned. It might be boring, but it's going to be a long haul...

While you wait for the next exciting episode, here's a video of what it's like backstage. It might keep you occupied for a few minutes.

Ice, snow and electric violins

Cincinnati is having a bad weather day. Last night's commute was hell, from all indications. I had only to drive 11 blocks to Music Hall, and that took over 20 minutes. When I left there before nine, after the salt trucks and plows had had time to do their magic, it still took 40 minutes to drive the 12 miles home in no traffic. It was slushy, slippery, and dangerous.

Rehearsal with John Adams went well, despite the missing singers. Singers were still drifting in around 8 PM, when rehearsal had been scheduled for 6:15. He's a delightful conductor, very clear in his direction. His personality is upbeat and fun, and he uses tact to get the results he wants.

His music is extremely difficult to sing, primarily because of its rhythmic complexity, so I'm sure he has to deal with choirs that don't do it well. We're better than most but we're still having a hard time. He handles it all with aplomb. He told us last night about how On the Transmigration of Souls was a flop in London because the British chorus didn't understand how to sing the ordinary language of the piece.

The texts were taken from missing posters on the streets of NY after 9/11 and from remembrances of the victims that were published in the NY Times.

"He was extremely good looking. Girls never talked to me when he was around."

"He called me every day. I'm still waiting."

"I wanted to dig him out. I know just where he is."

"It's been three months, but it feels like yesterday since I saw your beautiful face, saying 'I love you to the moon and back.'"

It's hard to sing those lines without tearing up. You have to suck it up and concentrate on the performance, not the emotion.

The second half of the concert will feature Leila Josefowicz playing the electric violin in Adams' The Dharma at Big Sur. I'm looking forward to hearing it. The array of percussion at the back of the stage is a hint that it's going to have big sonic impact.

Freeze

Cincinnati has succumbed to another episode of freezing rain, exactly 363 days since the last time the city shut down for ice. Most of my office is working from home today.

The past weekend featured the Fine Arts Fund sampler, a weekend of over 100 performances/exhibitions by the many arts groups that benefit from the largesse of the city's citizens who contribute millions to the fund each year.

On Saturday, I was privileged to attend "Origami Meets the Price is Right," Jonathan Heart's delightful show for children, at the Cincinnati Art Museum, which was followed by "Long Lost Stories," a production of the Madcap Puppets. A quick tour of the Cincinnati Wing of the museum followed, as my companion had not yet been there. The Rookwood pottery collection, as well as the marvelous furniture hand-carved by 19th Century Cincinnati women were the highlights of the visit.

Sunday's performane of the Cincinnati May Festival Youth Chorus and the May Festival Chamber Choir went well. We (the Chamber Choir) sang 8 of the 15 pieces of Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil.

Tonight the full May Festival Chorus will rehearse John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls, for which Adams won the Pulitzer prize. It is a reminiscence of those lost in the devastation of New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Adams will conduct the chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the work on February 22 and 23 at Cincinnati's Music Hall.

The piece is moving and will be devastating for the audience. The text is taken from memories of the lost, printed in the New York Times, and from posters seen on the street in the weeks following the tragedy.

It will be especially poignant for many members of the Chorus and Orchestra, who performed Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at Carnegie Hall 3 weeks after September 11. That performance, planned months in advance of the concert, left the hall in near silence upon its completion. Some of the audience members could be heard crying. It had been only two days since American forces had invaded Afghanistan.

This just in: the word has arrived that tonight's rehearsal has been cancelled due to the weather, and our director, Robert Porco, halfway here from Cleveland, is turning around and heading home. Next week will be a busy one, with extra rehearsals so that we can work with the Cincinnati Children's Choir before Mr. Adams arrives.