The setting was overwhelming, with 1,200 voices from the adult and children's massed choirs arrayed at the end of the arena overlooking the stage where the Newfoundland Symphony was seated. They obviously employ an excellent sound crew since they were able to mike the string section so that the choirs could hear them on a monitor. The downside is that we weren't able to hear Rajaton very well because their sound was, as it should be, projected towards the audience.
The tympani play a crucial role in the first movement of "Dona Nobis Pacem". Fortunately, there was no problem hearing them.
The concert began with the fanfare from Aida (without elephants) and a procession of flags representing the provinces and countries of participating choirs. Our own Maggie was selected to carry the British Columbia flag.
That was followed by an amazing set from the Festival 500 Youth Choir. They had their entire repertoire memorized, including pieces in Latin and Finnish, and performed most of it "a cappella".
They were followed by the Indonesian Children's Choir who performed a couple of pieces, including one called informally "The Dance of a Thousand Hands". It features all kinds of elaborate hand and body movements, including a final section in which girls kneel on the stage, arranged alternately by the colour of their costumes. They proceed to do more hand movements, above, in front and behind them, coupled with movements that have half the group squatting while the other half rises to their knees. Then the latter rock back to a squat while the other half move up to their knees. This movement is repeated several times. One false move and someone could lose an eye.
The adult choir then got to perform "Dona Nobis Pacem." All the work we did to learn the piece seemed worthwhile when we were able to perform it with a full orchestra and outstanding soprano and tenor soloists. The soprano, Gunnel Sjoberg, is the wife of our conductor, Fred Sjoberg. She also led some of the warmups during our daily rehearsals. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of lighting obviously hadn't attended the dress rehearsal. When the soloists sang, the lighting crew blacked out the choir making it impossible to see the music and, thus, a couple of the entrances when the chorus was supposed to come in. Luckily, most of us had memorized the most important one and were able to get started on cue and carried on until the lights were on us once again.
Next the combined youth and adult choirs performed Bob Chilcott's "The Seeds of Stars" to considerable applause.
The grand finale of the Grand Finale Concert, was, of course, the set by Rajaton. One would be forgiven for suspecting that Rajaton was invited to entice as large a crowd as possible to hear us sing the classical repertoire.
Their Abba selections brought down the house, especially when 1,200 voices joined in on the choruses for Chiquitita and Mama Mia.
Now our tour is over and EnChor will disperse for the summer. This blog will resume in the Fall.
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Location:St. John's
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