"Suddenly there's a section singing. As opposed to a horse."

... No, I have no idea what that meant. But I can tell you that it referred to the 2nd sopranos... maybe one of them can enlighten me? (Well, I know what he meant by the first bit. It's the horse that baffled me!)

Ladies' sectional tonight. And it was a typical ladies' sectional in two ways: 1. We got a lot done. 2. Jamie appeared to be having such a good time that he was even more entertaining as usual, and this resulted in much amusement :-)

We spent most of the time learning Laudibus in Sanctis, but we also did a bit of work on Lord, thou hast been our refuge and God is gone up. There were so many Jamieisms I didn't attempt to write them all down, but some that I did were:

"It needs some kind of archival evidence that this bar was rehearsed."

"Can we make sure it sounds like an Italian singing the song from Mary Poppins?" (this related to 'chee' at the start of 'cymbala'...)

The one that had everyone almost crying with laughter was a bit visual, but it involved taking ownership of a B flat, and Jamie doing an impression of aitting on a park bench repeatedly. You probably had to be there!

Anyway, one other thing before I tell you about Mack and Mabel. You might not have seen this review in the Independent, which is of the whole Shostakovich festival, and ACTUALLY MENTIONS THE CHOIR! (Oh, and that reminds me - sorry to anyone who's emailed me this week, I've been snowed under with work, but I'll try to get caught up at the weekend.)

So, Mack and Mabel! There's an M.E.N. review here. And I'm a bit surprised to see that the comments at the end of that review suggest that not everyone liked it as much as I did. But hey, it takes all sorts :-)

You see, whenever I go to see a show, I always look at the programme to see if there's anyone I know in the band. (It does sometimes happen...) And when I did this for Mack and Mabel, I was surprised to see there was no band listed. Then I noticed that the pit of the theatre was empty, and no musicians were warming up. Odd, I thought - surely they're not performing to a backing track? Then I noticed that in the cast list, next to each actor's name was not only a character name but also an instrument - several, in some cases. I wondered out loud what this might mean, and my 10-year-old niece said that the actors must be playing the instruments as well. I explained that this never happens... and felt quite stupid when it turned out she was absolutely correct!

There were 10 actors in the cast, I think. David Soul was the lead, but I'd never heard of any of the others. But they were fabulous. Each of them not only acted and sang (solo and in harmony), they also tap-danced, and they all (except David Soul) carried a musical instrument throughout. And played it. And I don't just mean they played a few random notes - they supplied the actual backing parts for the show. From memory, too! There was a musical director who played a keyboard, but he was up on a balcony on the side of the stage, and he didn't conduct, so the fact that they played as an ensemble was even more impressive. And they switched modes all the time. For example, there was one guy who had a trumpet. During one song, here is what I think he did:

• Played trumpet in the intro
• Sang the first verse as a solo
• Played the trumpet again
• Sang the second verse as one of the harmony parts
• Played the trumpet again
• Removed the mute from his trumpet and used it as a prop (he mimed offering a drink to someone)
• Grabbed a followspot (you know, a spotlight used to follow a single actor) and lit up the lead actress as she danced around the stage (Mack and Mabel mainly takes place on a film set, so spotlights were part of the props - but these were ACTUAL spotlights, and the actors operated them!)
• Did a tap dance

And while the trumpeter was doing all these things, the other actors were doing similar stuff - singing a bit, playing a bit, acting a bit, constantly switching. Now I might've got the songs muddled and he might not've done ALL those things in one song, but he certainly did all those things at various points. It was all so CLEVER! Oh, and at one point the lead actress had a big romantic scene that took place on a train. And the whole cast swayed from side to side to portray the movement of the train. But it was the lead actress who supplied the sound effects that made the train seem real... while delivering this big emotional speech, she kept up a train rhythm on a cabasa. I don't think I could've done it as rhythmically as she did!

Anyway, maybe not everyone will be impressed with it. The acting, singing and playing was all "good" rather than "fabulous". And there was hardly any set, which might bother some. But the cleverness of the production delighted me so much that it more than made up for any tiny quibbles such as these. Go and see it!

P.S. Just after posting this, I got an email from Rachel P (1st alto), who says "On Saturday the Manchester University Symphony Orchestra have a concert in the Cosmo Rodewald concert hall in the music department (sorry, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama) and are in need of an audience. The concert starts at 7.30, I believe it costs students £3 and non-students £10, and the programme is Henze Symphony No.1, Tomasi Trumpet Concerto and Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 (in which i'm playing piccolo...)"