Before I launch into this week’s missive, I just wanted to let the sopranos who turned up chez nous at the weekend for their extra rehearsal that my Sunday dinner of “Tesco’s Everyday Chunky Chicken in White Sauce” was absolutely delicious. It may have benefited slightly from being warmed up and possibly served on a plate rather than in a tin, but nevertheless, another culinary triumph for Mrs B. I was particularly looking forward to washing it down with a crisp, refreshing Pinot Grigio or a smooth and fruity Merlot, but apparently, there was nothing left. How did that happen???……….
Apologies for the private joke and on with the show.
Firstly, a big welcome to Sharon who is the latest unhinged member of the public who has decided to give the choir a go. Goodness knows what you made of our 1-1-2-1 warm up which proved categorically, that although conducted at an absolutely funereal pace, we are totally incapable of singing and coordinating hand and foot movements! Never mind, it was still good fun. Perhaps even more bizarre was the sad story of Alfred the Alligator which was hard enough when we were all singing in unison, but once we moved to two parts, it was mayhem.
But, fear not, you heard it here first, Beyond the Sea is actually getting better. We can at least now get through to the end, not necessarily all at the same time, but progress indeed. I reckon a couple more years and we will have it sorted!
CLTCL was also an improvement, but be careful not to have too much ‘luuurrvvve’ was the edict from on high.
To be serious for one moment, thank you to Jen (altos) for suggesting that we dedicate The Prayer to the people of Ukraine at this very difficult time. Well said, Jen, and I am sure that we all agree with her suggestion.
It is a beautiful piece and I am not sure what we are going to make of the Italian pronunciation, but with resident experts Mary and Jill on hand, we are sure to have some first class guidance, the first of which is to make sure you remember to ‘roll your r’s’. Didn’t think we had introduced any choreography for this one yet. Maybe I was asleep when that happened.
We dipped our toes into ‘I’m Still Standing’ much to Kate’s (tenors) horror and crashed through ‘ROL’ with strangely, less success than last week. This was, however, balanced out by the (almost) perfect rendition of ‘Perfect’ which we haven’t attempted for probably close on a couple of years.
A cracking effort at ‘Amazing Grace’ was the predecessor to tidying up whilst blasting out ‘SSS’, without music. That probably surprised a few of you!
So, on to the bar where, once again the ‘hard core’ of sopranos had to be ushered out by barman Ced with cries of ‘haven’t you got an home to go to?’, but not before they had drunk the place dry (again! ). Just joshing ladies, lovely to have your company.
In harmony
Haz