Messiah 2012

I fear that writing about singing the Messiah - especially for the fourth time - will never convey how wonderful it is to be part of this group, this experience.  My friend, Emily Gibson, wrote much more eloquently, and let me use her words - here - the first year I joined the choir.

We've been rehearsing since the beginning of October.  This may be a small town, but - quality-wise - it's no small town production.  We have a wonderful conductor, a fabulous organist/pianist/harpsichordist, a chamber orchestra, and seventy-five voices this year!  And one of them was Wyatt's :D  (Pics from Kerry's video cam, so excuse the quality...)

Don't be fooled by the females around him; he's a bass.  We sing in "scramble formation", the better to hear how your part fits into the whole.

Our conductor, thrilled to have so many voices to work with, got ambitious this year and decided to do the whole Messiah.  Okay, not all fifty-three pieces. we omitted several of the solos to keep the performance to about two hours, out of mercy to our audience.  Some of whom (Gunnar!) obviously found even that to be long, and took full advantage of the intermission.

I got to stand right next to the big bass (!) the better to be able to slip to the front, because...

I stepped waaaaay out of my comfort zone and auditioned for a solo this year, and was given two.  Thankfully, mine were at the front end of the performance (nerves!) and I could relax and enjoy the rest of the singing once I got through them.  I sang the recitative Behold A Virgin Shall Conceive and the aria O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion.  I love the way the aria flows right into the choir singing O Thou That Tellest - so joyful and mighty.

I was talking with a choir friend last night about how every year we sing it we have more favorite pieces.  This is becoming one of my favorite Christmas traditions - even more so, now that Wyatt has joined in :D

Talk about exhausting, though!  Though the choir does get breaks when the soloists sing, we sang eighteen songs, two days in a row.  That's a lot of singing.  And on top of that, we Grasshoppers also had Tuba Christmas, King Tut, and our five-month-old niece for the weekend.  (Thankfully, her other grandparents took her Friday evening, so my whole family could attend the concert together.)  By the time we got through the weekend, and a flat tire Sunday morning just as we were leaving for church, I felt like I'd run a marathon!  It's all been good, but a bit of a blur.  We had a break Monday evening, the CAP Dining Out last night (pics soon), and I'm hosting the church youth group for dinner, games, and singing tonight... gotta get the chili going!