Hurrah! Huzzah! And Hurnah! *waves a flag of joy!*
Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:01 pm
Hurnah? Where did come from? *eyes boggle* Guess I need more sleep-n-coffee. 
Anyway... I just did a concert with my local choir yesterday, and it went off very satisfactorily. Yay!
I must admit, I was very, very nervous about it (particularly since I missed 3 rehearsals due to clashes with other things... and they asked me to do two solos and a duet, and to introduce each song... and... agh! You know how it is - it's not easy to speak in public).
Anyway, I was asked to perform three Gilbert-and-Sullivan songs, since I've done G&S with a theatre company for the past 5 years. I wanted to avoid the songs that everyone had heard a million times, so I did three songs from "Ruddigore" - a comic opera that isn't performed as often. (As an aside, I really don't understand why my MD wanted me to do songs just by myself - I thought it'd be nice to sing something with someone else. I'd rather not hog the limelight all to myself!) I do pay a lot of attention to my vocal technique and diction - I'm sure any audience, *anywhere*, would hate it if someone started to sing and it came out all garbled, that would sound like rubbish! :p
Anyway, the first song was a very innocent and charming song called "I Know a Youth", a love duet sung by two people who are in love with each other, but aren't sure how to tell each other. I sang it with a very charming soprano lady from the chorus, we incorporated a few "stage-gestures" etc. into the song, and it was just fine - the audience liked it too. 
I then introduced and sang a song called "When the Night-wind Howls", sung by a ghost ancestor called Roderic. It's a highly dramatic, fast and energetic song, in which the ghost tells us "Don't feel pity for us - even though we're dead and ghosts, we're having a great time while you're all asleep!" *G*
Finally, I introduced and sang "My boy, you may take it from me". This is sung allegro molto vivace (fast and very happy) - in which the singer tells us that, even if you are very talented, you must be able to sell that talent. Or, in the words of the song - "If you wish in the world to advance, / Your merits you're bound to enhance / You must stir it and stump it / and blow your own trumpet, / or trust me, you haven't a chance!" *G* As befits a fast song of this kind, I worked in a little vivace dance-step-routine, and although I was anxious that it might fall like a lead balloon, the audience loved it.
The rest of the concert went very well too. We worked in excerpts from "The King and I", some jazzy Frank Sinatra songs, "Cats", "The Lion King" (for the kiddies), and a jazzy, upbeat version of "When the Saints Go Marching in" as a closer. We also had an extremely talented jazz quartet, who played nine songs in two brackets - a very good trumpet player, a highly talented pianist, a superb viola player, and saxophonist who was also an amazing accordion player (at one point, he played an incredibly fast solo - my guess would be about 200+ beats per minute!!)
They each gave each other a chance to do complicated and fun jazz improvisations - it was fun just listening to them play.
All in all, a highly enjoyable afternoon, and I'm glad to say the audience loved it too.
Anyway... I just did a concert with my local choir yesterday, and it went off very satisfactorily. Yay!
I must admit, I was very, very nervous about it (particularly since I missed 3 rehearsals due to clashes with other things... and they asked me to do two solos and a duet, and to introduce each song... and... agh!
You know how it is - it's not easy to speak in public). Anyway, I was asked to perform three Gilbert-and-Sullivan songs, since I've done G&S with a theatre company for the past 5 years. I wanted to avoid the songs that everyone had heard a million times, so I did three songs from "Ruddigore" - a comic opera that isn't performed as often. (As an aside, I really don't understand why my MD wanted me to do songs just by myself - I thought it'd be nice to sing something with someone else. I'd rather not hog the limelight all to myself!)
I do pay a lot of attention to my vocal technique and diction - I'm sure any audience, *anywhere*, would hate it if someone started to sing and it came out all garbled, that would sound like rubbish! :pAnyway, the first song was a very innocent and charming song called "I Know a Youth", a love duet sung by two people who are in love with each other, but aren't sure how to tell each other.
I sang it with a very charming soprano lady from the chorus, we incorporated a few "stage-gestures" etc. into the song, and it was just fine - the audience liked it too. I then introduced and sang a song called "When the Night-wind Howls", sung by a ghost ancestor called Roderic. It's a highly dramatic, fast and energetic song, in which the ghost tells us "Don't feel pity for us - even though we're dead and ghosts, we're having a great time while you're all asleep!" *G*
Finally, I introduced and sang "My boy, you may take it from me". This is sung allegro molto vivace (fast and very happy) - in which the singer tells us that, even if you are very talented, you must be able to sell that talent. Or, in the words of the song - "If you wish in the world to advance, / Your merits you're bound to enhance / You must stir it and stump it / and blow your own trumpet, / or trust me, you haven't a chance!" *G* As befits a fast song of this kind, I worked in a little vivace dance-step-routine, and although I was anxious that it might fall like a lead balloon, the audience loved it.
The rest of the concert went very well too. We worked in excerpts from "The King and I", some jazzy Frank Sinatra songs, "Cats", "The Lion King" (for the kiddies), and a jazzy, upbeat version of "When the Saints Go Marching in" as a closer. We also had an extremely talented jazz quartet, who played nine songs in two brackets - a very good trumpet player, a highly talented pianist, a superb viola player, and saxophonist who was also an amazing accordion player (at one point, he played an incredibly fast solo - my guess would be about 200+ beats per minute!!)
They each gave each other a chance to do complicated and fun jazz improvisations - it was fun just listening to them play. All in all, a highly enjoyable afternoon, and I'm glad to say the audience loved it too.
