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Bravo, you! Your audition was successful, and you are hereby invited to perform the Mozart Requiem on November 24th at the Elsinore Theater. Use the stage entrance, please!
What a terrific tutti rehearsal! It really does make a difference that so many singers and orchestra members had performed this work before. There was a palpable familiarity and assurance as we began to jell as an ensemble, making the whole night fun from my perch on the podium. And for those of you who really are experiencing the work for the first time, I hope that most of your fears faded? Of course it wasn't perfect, since there's still some settling in to do, but we truly made music together as we proceeded.
The main key to our success was the fact that most of you really had your heads out of the music. Frankly, there isn't enough room on the risers, but Bryan has accomplished the impossible by fitting all of you meaningfully onto the stage, so that each of you should be able to see me clearly. Remember, if you somehow have your view blocked, do not suffer in silence! Communicate with the person, and work out which 2-3 inches, left or right, would make a difference to you! I very much like having the tenors and basses where they are—they can really be heard. Bryan was also right in advising the basses and tenors not to take your voices beyond the bounds of personal beauty: a shouting voice is never musical.
Next Tuesday night I'll clarify things that need attention in each movement. For example, I'll be sure to spend enough time to further improve the "Amen" chorus, to solidify tricky transitions between some movements, and to rehearse and clarify the tempo as the basses begin the "Osanna" (I'll conduct in 3 until the tenors have entered, to give enough time for the tempo to be solid before switching to the more joyful 1 in a bar).
Rather than list them all, I'll save the details of each movement's little projects until we can meet them together, since they are better rehearsed that way. However, there are two things you all can do to really polish our performance:
- WATCH ME! Yes, there are still a number of you who really don't look up! That means that (a) you can't be solidly in sync, and (b) your voice is aimed at the floor!
- DOUBLE YOUR CONSONANT PRODUCTION! It was pretty good on Tuesday, but with more attention(especially to voiced consonants) the performance can be stunning.
There's really only one thing that surprised me when I heard you on the risers, with the orchestra: Some of the vowels still aren't right, from some individuals! When you were on the flat floor, that problem wasn't so evident. I still hear:
- "i" pronounced as "ih" (it's EEE!) from the soprano section,
- "u" pronounced as "uh" (it's OOO!) from a number of altos and tenors,
- "rehk" pronounced "rak" in the word "requiem" from some basses.
Vowel unification is a huge topic, one that plagues all choirs, so you can expect a whole catalogue of examples on my tombstone! Do your very best to listen to what you're doing, and please ask your neighbors to let you know if you still need work on that! [I'm planning a little fun project for you all to experiment with during our holiday break, so be sure to come back in January.]
Have a terrific weekend, and I'll see and hear you next Tuesday.
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