Frenetic

My choir had its big summer concert yesterday. We normally have a classical program in winter, and a modern one in summer, usually a collection of pop, rock and jazz songs with light show and choreography.

This time, we had went one step further and selected musical medleys. Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, High School Musical 2, Lion King, as well as a Best of Abba and My Favorite Things from Sound of Music. This required two things: Long, elaborate choreography and costume change between every act. From the animal costumes for Lion King to the suit and bowtie for Phantom, we had to keep six different sets of clothes backstage and actually switch in the time between songs. Mind you, we were in a permanent tent construction, with almost fifty people getting re-dressed. That was quite the hen house.

The choreography had been our bane for weeks ahead; we had a lot of trouble learning it. When you have to stand in a particular position, you take your neighbors as orientation – but not everyone came to every rehearsal. Bad. When you have trouble remembering the steps, you might practice at home, but not everyone, particularly not the students, have enough space in their dorm rooms. Bad. When everybody is so busy dancing, not a lot of singing gets done. Bad. Last, when someone screws up – happens often enough – they tend to make a “oh shit, I’m so sorry” face. This clues the audience in that something went wrong, which in many cases they wouldn’t have figured out otherwise. Bad.

So, right until the costume rehearsal one day before, I was convinced that we’d deliver a shoddy, half-baked wannabe musical program, replaceable and forgettable. What actually happened yesterday was something totally different.

• We had better sound: Full, confident, appropriate to the meaning of the current text. The sombre aggresion of the phantom, the summer holiday joy of High School Musical 2, the soft jazziness of My Favorite Things, everything was a lot more authentic
• We had better choreography: More people remembered to do the right thing than ever before
• We had better error control: When someone forgot, they improvized, and kept smiling. Drift off to the side, vanish in the group before you, just pretend to confidently do what you ought to be doing. The audience doesn’t know the “should”!
• We had better solos: All solists seemed particulary on the job, praise adrenaline. Confident, smooth sounds, gripping and and groovy, no complaints. Some solists even got scene applause, i.e. the audience couldn’t wait until the end of the song to applaud.

Most of all, we had excellent audience reaction. The applause was louder than anything I remember from a concert like that, the whistles were many, the cheers amazing. We filled the entire tent, which means over 300 in attendance. I assume that the combination of light show, solists, powerful choir sound and mostly correct choreography managed to distract from the various flaws that still remained. I was very skeptic about this program, because I doubted its realism, but the audience reaction was seriously a step above and beyond the usual. I am proud that this was my last concert with this choir, which I’ve been a member of since 1997. That’s a long time, and when I move to Bonn to start my PhD, I will not only find a new choir, I’ll take singing lessons! This is the musical experience I want to have – okay, I liked christmas oratorio and Elias a lot better, personally, but one must show a certain solidarity to the choir, or everybody would only sing the music they liked.