I’m very late updating this morning. If I’m part of your regular morning round of blogs, you might suspect that I slept in.
Would that it were so! Instead, I woke up with a blog post for my professional blog in my head, so I had to write that instead. I have to catch up with my various blogs in general today, and I also have some press releases to write, and preparation for my meetings on Monday and Tuesday.
However, I also plan to take a walk today, and a nap. I’ve got a performance tonight. I’m just in the chorus, so it’s not a huge big deal, but I want to make a positive contribution, and also I’ll be standing for a couple of hours, so I want to go in there feeling good.
We had a good rehearsal last night. There were moments, as for example when the conductor turned to the organist a few bars into the first movement and said, “We’re playing… the Faure.” We don’t know what the organist had on his mind, of course, but the Bach piece doesn’t begin with massive bass bowing and a baritone solo, so it was clearly something other than the actual music going on around him.
The violin soloist was incredible. I was sitting where I could only see her hair, which was cut short like glossy black fur, but it’s a good thing that the altos only sing two bars in the “Sanctus” movement, or I might well have missed entrances because I was just listening to her. Wow.
After the rehearsal, we went outside and watched the Slow Dancing. It is very cool, and you should click on the link and watch the video. Then imagine how impressive it is when it’s gigantic. We are one of very few places who are getting the opportunity to experience this installation — the Lincoln Center is one, and Los Angeles and Venice have alos gotten turns. If you know what a small town I live in, you will be flabbergasted that we got to have this marvellous thing going on here. If you live here, then get on down to the Arts Center tonight, first for our concert and then for the Slow Dancing. It does move very slowly, so you might want to take a picnic and have it on the lawn. Then listen to the Faure.
Then, if you want to, you can still bar-hop down the street if that’s what you usually do on Friday nights, and you won’t have missed anything.