First up is the orchestra, warming the room, bringing order out of chaos (or so says Haydn. Go with it).
The next one is the most dramatic moment in musical literature EVER WRITTEN, which is awesome, and you can hear me pretty well (for which I apologize).
Okay, so as it turns out you can't hear me at all, because blogger wouldn't let me upload the actual video. But this is just like what you would have heard and seen, except that our conductor is female and we were singing in English and it was the Cathedral and not a rehearsal room. Also, all the altos were behind me, so the balance was a little strange. But other than that - just the same!
Let's see if you can hear a little of the soprano...
I don't actually know what that clicking sound was. My pacemaker, maybe.
Okay, here's some friends (orchestra types) hanging out in the green room (otherwise known as 'The Crypt' because it's, well, a crypt) before the performance:
 |
| Gemma on basson, Chris on viola(? I think?), and me being very hard on the vocal cords. |
I kept a close eye on the basses - we were standing on what seemed like a very rickety structure, and from that high up you definitely wanted to know who to aim for landing on should the choir take a tumble.
 |
| Right there in the corner? That's called 'context'. |
Seriously, Haydn's Creation is about as much fun as you can have with classical choral music. And if you can arrange to sing it in an 800-year-plus-old building (I took the tour, I forgot already), so much the better.
*
