As he faced the sun he cast no shadow

I'm off out in half an hour to sing in the Manchester Passion. And I have a list of things I've been meaning to blog about, so let's see how many of them I can cross of my list before I have to leave... (please forgive me if this post is a bit bullet-point-ish!)

I'm looking forward to the Passion, but resigned to the fact that whenever I've been on TV in a group, the BBC seem to like to show lots of the person next to me but always cut me off... But then I have been on TV (on my own) more than most people, so I can't really complain! Full report later, anyway. (Hallé singers to watch out for: me, Alison, Liz L, Lizzy A, and Barbara. Plus Liz's brother and a couple of sixth form girls who were brothers with me in Joseph.)

Gen asked me to point out this, which is the scary news story about atttacks in Manchester. I'd already heard this news before Dr Liz pointed out the same thing, with the added detail that most of the attacks have happened on or near the road where she lives! Eek!

Mentioning Dr Liz reminds me that I realised in horror the other day that she very helpfully wrote down notes from last Wednesday's rehearsal (which I missed due to Joseph) and I haven't included them! So here goes:

'There are no rits in heaven, surely, it just goes on'

Not many Jamieisms tonight (apart from the one above, referring to an ethereal part of the requiem), but lots of markings for our Fauré scores. I tried writing all of them down in my copy and a piece of paper, but I got confused. Basically, I think this sums it up... if in doubt, don't breathe!

Most of the rehearsal was spent on the Fauré. We didn't sing all of it, but did pick out the most important bits. I appear to be one of the few people who don't know it backwards (the only time I've sung it was at the first 'Sing with the Hallé' day) so it helped my preparation for the sight reading test at tomorrow's vocal assessment (eek!).

We worked on Psalm 67 again. It started sounding rather unfamiliar and insecure, but quickly came on. The men in particular were helped by speaking in an American accent.

No word from Jamie about last Saturday's performance. I think he was living by the mantra my mother uses... "if you don't have anything good to say about a situation then don't say anything at all". But the general consensus from the people sitting near me was that they were pretty ashamed of how it went (I wasn't there, but will be this weekend).

To close the reheasal we sang the last 4 pages of the Vaughan Williams. Sounded good, mostly!

Thanks, Liz :-)

Talking of vocal assessments, I got my letter yesterday. Nothing spectactular, but a bit better than last time (Jamie even said some nice things OTHER than "great sight reading"!) But then I got a call last night from someone who was understandably baffled... because she'd just got her letter, and has been asked to reaudition to stay in the choir... yet she was chosen by Jamie for the semi-chorus only a few weeks ago! I'll be interested to see how this one develops...

To change the subject completely, I watched a really interesting master class online the other day, by Barbara Cook. It covers singing Irving Berlin songs. Interesting stuff, even if you might not agree with all of it. If you're going to watch, better do so soon, as I don't know how long they'll keep it online. (It's over 2 hours long, but if you're short of time, just watch the first singer - about 25 minutes - as the work she does with all the other singers is similar.) (Oh, and you will need a good broadband connection to make it play properly, I suspect.)

Bit more exciting news: I got an email from someone at the BBC:

"Dear Choir,

The People's Chorus is a major BBC-4 music event - we're looking for a chorus of 1,000 singers to record Tallis' most famous work - 'Spem in Alium'. This massive choral undertaking is an exciting opportunity for the public to perform at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on Saturday June 10th 2006. The piece will be rehearsed from scratch, with the thousand voices forming eight choirs, culminating in a performance at the end of the day of one of the most marvellous and sublime pieces of music in the world.

If you want to be part of this fantastic music event, please contact us via the BBC Four music web page here or send an SAE to PO Box 2631, Bristol BS8 9BG.

Thank you!"

To which my reaction was "Ooooooooooooh!" Only tiny problem is that England's first game in the World Cup is that afternoon... but they tend to do better when I don't watch :p

That's a week before our Hallé prom, and for those who haven't seen the set list:

Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus
Verdi: Requiem - Sanctus
Orff: Carmina Burana - O Fortuna
Fauré: Requiem - Agnus Dei
Wagner: Lohengrin - Bridal Chorus
Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Mozart: Requiem - Dies Irae and Lacrimosa
Puccini: Madama Butterfly - Humming Chorus
Handel: Zadok the Priest and Hallelujah Chorus
Verdi: Il Trovatore - Soldiers' Chorus
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana - Easter Hymn

What else can I write quickly? Oh yes... Graham E points out that there are a few reviews of the Hallé's Wasps CD appearing, and they all seem under the impression that it's Hallé Choir men that are singing on it - not helped by the fact that it says Hallé Choir on the CD! I know the reasons why it's NOT the Hallé Choir, and have no problem with them (short answer: it was recorded a couple of days after our London trip last July, and the sessions were all during the day, and it was felt impractical to expect enough members of the choir to be able to take more days off work). But it was never mentioned that it would have our name on the CD!

Anyway, I must go now. I'll include the rest of my list with my Passion report... later tonight hopefully :-)