This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, so get out your umbrellas.
8:02 a.m.
The choir concert, which I know Jenn is dying to hear about, was a great community success, as always, receiving the usual standing ovation upon completion. Unfortunately, from my overly-criticial point of view, there wasn�t that much good singing, and the choreography has suffered since the days when Jenn and Karla ran the show. Sigh. But, I actually brought home a programme, so at least I can speak intelligently about it.
The theme of the evening was �Colour and Light� and the choir members were dressed in blue jeans and brightly coloured tee-shirts. My student, the anarchist, doesn�t own such an item, I guess, and was wearing a borrowed item from one of the girls in the choir, which I couldn�t resist ribbing him about (in a good-natured way) at intermission. The concert opened with True Colours, was followed by Somewhere over the Rainbow, and continued with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, all of which were chorus numbers with soloists getting some of the glory. Much of the solo singing was out of tune, and you could tell that these kids were overtired vocally.
Then a small women�s chorus performed Roses White and Roses Red from The Gondoliers (By the way, none of the composers� names were mentioned in the programme, just the names of the pieces and who the soloists were. I thought this was a pretty big oversight on the part of the director and his programme planning minions.) complete with little baskets of red and white silk flowers. It was pretty bad folks. They would bend over to pick up their baskets or the flowers and sound would suffer. Following this was Yes It Is with a small chorus of men, California Dreaming with the whole choir and a young woman playing the flute solo (okay, I might add), and a young man who is actually a drama major sat in a green spotlight and sang It�s Not Easy Bein� Green. He has a pretty tenor voice (out of tune, again) which I have heard him use in various drama productions, and very good facial expressions.
Following this was my favourite of the evening, Yellow Submarine, with props, including a yellow cardboard submarine and ocean waves. Three young, out-of-tune women sang Green Apples with choir accompaniment, and then the lovely assistant director took the stage with the son of the man in the tie-dye shirt, and sang a duet of Vincent (by Bob McLean). It was pretty bad, boys and girls, seriously speaking. Of course, those people in the audience who were not catty sopranos loved it. They ended the first half with the Beatles classic Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End.
The second half was more of the same. I shall list them: Don�t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Lost in the Stars (which was rather pretty, except that the accompanist had a vocal solo, and shouldn�t have), Light of the World from Godspell, Another Day, Anthem, a duet between two young singers (the only ones who actually sang in tune) They Were You, Is a Light Shinin� in the Heavens?, Sun and Moon (as a small ensemble of women), Smile (with full chorus but one of the members danced in a Charlie Chaplinesque costume, very sweet actually), and the classic from The Rocky Horror Picture Show There�s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place) complete with the soloists holding newspapers over their heads and the man in the tie-dye shirt donning a hooded cape that made him look ghoulish in the extreme. Then there was Boogie Street with two soloists and chorus (the female is the same girl who could not sing at studio yesterday because of a sore throat, and the young man was one of my own students who was in tune), Aquarius�Let the Sunshine In, and the finale Shed a Little Light which I found to be very moving actually.
Anyway, there you have it in a nutshell. The music was not challenging, and I always feel that with the resources we have we could be doing much better stuff. But Herr Doktor Professor seems to think this is the way to go with the spring concert, we always pull in packed houses, and truth to tell the choir concerts bring in the most revenue for the department. But that is not what this place is supposed to be about, nor is it supposed to be a vehicle for a �professional� to showcase her talent on the same stage with students. I�m sorry, but that is a real sore point, especially with the students who didn�t get a solo, thank you. Herr Doktor Professor is of the opinion that this is his ensemble, his course, and he can teach it any way he wants to. As a matter of fact, the chair of the department has concurred with this. But this is a music course, required curriculum (which happens to be open to non-students as well as students who are not taking it for credit), and there should be a certain academic standard here. I can talk on this matter until I clear the room and nothing will change, but I do feel strongly on this point.
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