"Put the consonants in... but don't."

Well, I have to be at the airport at 6 a.m. and it's now past midnight, but I'm waiting for one of my cats to come in, so I thought I'd do a quick blog post. If he's not appeared by the time I've finished, he'll be outside till 5.30 a.m. :p

We had a long rehearsal tonight, but it didn't seem that long, because it was in three distinct sections - we started with Poulenc, then John Summers and Geoff Owen came to tell us about plans for next season, then we rehearsed Svyati with Ivan Monighetti. I can't tell you any details of what John and Geoff said, because it's still under an embargo, but I wrote it all down, so I'll post it in a few days when I'm allowed to!

We'd remembered Svyati pretty well, although I still can't do the breathing. Ivan played the last note as a G natural, which is what's printed in our copies AND what's played on the recording I've got. When we did it with Jane, she did a G sharp, and Jamie said that was correct because it was a misprint. I'd love to know who's right! I liked it better with the G natural at first, but now I've got used to the G sharp I think I prefer that...

David Evans told me about a Jamieism from the men's sectional last Thursday. "Gentlemen, present it like you're saying 'There you are. Cottage pie. With broccoli. Don't leave it there, or the pigeons will come and eat it.'" ... I'd love to say that I could tell by the way they sang tonight which bit that referred to, but I couldn't. Maybe it was one of the movements we didn't do tonight :p

(The cat just came in, but I may as well finish now!) David also persuaded me to be a temporary alto rep, standing in for Dr Liz, who's taken a leave of absence till September. I did send a note round the section to see if anyone else wanted to have a go, but no-one did. So I get to not only whinge but also to pass on other people's whinges :-)

All my Jamieisms tonight are from the Poulenc. The consonant one in the title was my favourite, but we also had: "In heaven there are no trains to catch." Oh, and "Mind, body, soul... and goo." But now I must sleep!