“Messiah”

This weekend, one of the things I got to do in Calgary was see Ambrose University College’s Messiah, which Colin, Mom, and Dad were all singing in (with the AUC Community Singers). It was good, overall, but disappointing in places. The first, biggest, thing was that it was held in the gym of the college that was hosting it. That wasn’t the director’s choice, but the school just built a brand-new campus, so of course the administration wanted the Christmas concert to show it off. Unfortunately, there’s not a large enough concert hall for the event, so they set up the gym.

The sound was quite good, and it didn’t have the terrible acoustics that most gyms have, but the aesthetic was terrible. The mood and formality of the event was really compromised by having it in the venue that they did. I get why the administration wanted it there; I’m also completely on the director’s side, who has said that he’s going to fight to make sure it never happens in that location again. It’s why I will not have my wedding reception in a community hall or something similar. No matter how much you try to dress it up, it still looks like a high-school dance, and that’s an aesthetic that isn’t appropriate for a concert like that.

The Saturday night concert was a sing-along, which I was really excited about, but it was far from meeting my expectations.

Last year, Jenny and I went to a sing-along Messiah with the L.A. Master Chorale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (which is one of the world’s best concert venues). Of course, right there, if I’m comparing the two, there’s a problem. Heh. However, the issue went far beyond the size and stature of the event. At the one we were at last year, there was no choir. There was the orchestra, four soloists, and the conductor, and the audience, most of whom had come prepared to sing, were the choir. It was fantastic, great fun, and really, really interactive.

The way that Ambrose did it, the concert went on as usual, the exception being the fact that the audience was invited to bring (or borrow) a score and sing along. However, there wasn’t much interaction with it, and people didn’t really come expecting to sing. Because the concert was with two college choirs (and a community choir), there were too many parents and family members who were just there to see their kids. Not enough people wanted to sing.

I think it would have been significantly better if the choir had been planted in the audience for the sing-along. 80 choir members in an audience of 400 would go a long way to build enthusiasm for the sing-along part, and then the conductor wouldn’t be focused towards the choir, but could be toward the audience. Also, Colin made the point that, as a choir member, he felt like the audience’s attention was divided on the Saturday night, since we (at least those of us who were singing) weren’t fully there to see/hear the choir, but to participate in it ourselves.

But, as I said, the music was very good. It was very accessible for a classical concert; the soloists were obviously trained, but not too operatic for the average audience member to enjoy. There was the unfortunate incident of a few college freshmen in the back row who haven’t quite figured out “concert behavior” and just about made me keel over from laughing so hard during the Saturday night show. One of the guys in the back row yawned–huge–and stretched just as the bass soloist started singing. Exactly the same moment. It was like the moment in Lion King where Simba roars, but it’s really Mufasa behind him making the noise. The kid didn’t bother to cover his mouth, keep from stretching, stay fully seated (he kind of rose halfway out of his seat)… it was hilarious, in a “how can you possibly think this is appropriate onstage behavior?” kind of way. It’s like they forgot that people could see them when they weren’t actually singing. Seriously, I think Colin was just about ready to come down from the choir to see if I was going to die on him. My face was turning purple, I was laughing so hard, and I think that Esther was kind of ashamed to be seen sitting next to me.

It’s just unfortunate that they were forced to perform in a gym and that the sing-along wasn’t better thought-out. Maybe next year!

And that’s my two cents’ worth on that. Esther commented that I carry around a pocketful of pennies, ready to insert my two (or ten) cents when it comes to the arts. Fortunately, Colin does the same thing, so we’re obviously a perfect match.