I will post happy things. I will think happy things.
Messiah!
I went to see hear the Messiah yesterday a few weeks ago!
-I thought I'd gotten the sing-along tickets and apparently I didn't, oh woe! (Hear the Hallelujah Chorus sung by thousands once, and nothing can ever compare again.) IN MY DEFENSE, that was a really confusing website and I spent what must've been forty minutes over several days trying to figure out how to get a ticket. WEBSITE DESIGN FOR THE CASUAL VISITOR, PLZ!
-There was a countertenor instead of an alto. Also something I could have foreseen (foresawn), as the program does say...and he was well enough, I suppose. Only...well, I was looking for good singers to emulate, and I don't think I can exactly adapt his strategies for me. Kind of hoping to hear what female singers do with their lower range - especially since opera and such generally seem to focus on the clear, high sounds. Really disappointed here D:
--> on this subject, if anyone knows good contraltos/altos, would you rec?
I am still in love with the choir, because it was fantastic. It is the choir that makes my heart leap - like a sudden rush of sound, all together. They had fantastic control over volume, so it could sink low and - this being in a concert hall - in dead silence, then boom out. And of course Handel gives them the opportunity: Messiah is chock full of glorious outpourings of happiness and - grandeur. (All we like sheep unexpectedly joyous, and he shall purify resonant, and of course Hallelujah magnificent. "Wonderful counsellor" stuck through my head on the half-hour of wet evening, walking home). I liked the bass and the soprano - the tenor was okay - but I am a firm believer that Handel, though he was also awesome, should never burden anyone (virtuoso or no) with passages that Messiah contains. As in fifty-note strings of trills, basically - in the bass (pardon me, baritone), they sounded like nothing more than rocks being shaken about. (This might have been "For behold darkness" or "The people that walked" but I don't quite remember.) Having analyzed the bit in the second part for music history, beginning with "There were shepherds", it was fantastic to hear another rendition - and the soprano didn't overload too much; her voice simply rang.
All in all, amazing. But I'd still rather have gone to the sing-along - alas!
Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/101875.html.
I went to see hear the Messiah yesterday a few weeks ago!
-I thought I'd gotten the sing-along tickets and apparently I didn't, oh woe! (Hear the Hallelujah Chorus sung by thousands once, and nothing can ever compare again.) IN MY DEFENSE, that was a really confusing website and I spent what must've been forty minutes over several days trying to figure out how to get a ticket. WEBSITE DESIGN FOR THE CASUAL VISITOR, PLZ!
-There was a countertenor instead of an alto. Also something I could have foreseen (foresawn), as the program does say...and he was well enough, I suppose. Only...well, I was looking for good singers to emulate, and I don't think I can exactly adapt his strategies for me. Kind of hoping to hear what female singers do with their lower range - especially since opera and such generally seem to focus on the clear, high sounds. Really disappointed here D:
--> on this subject, if anyone knows good contraltos/altos, would you rec?
I am still in love with the choir, because it was fantastic. It is the choir that makes my heart leap - like a sudden rush of sound, all together. They had fantastic control over volume, so it could sink low and - this being in a concert hall - in dead silence, then boom out. And of course Handel gives them the opportunity: Messiah is chock full of glorious outpourings of happiness and - grandeur. (All we like sheep unexpectedly joyous, and he shall purify resonant, and of course Hallelujah magnificent. "Wonderful counsellor" stuck through my head on the half-hour of wet evening, walking home). I liked the bass and the soprano - the tenor was okay - but I am a firm believer that Handel, though he was also awesome, should never burden anyone (virtuoso or no) with passages that Messiah contains. As in fifty-note strings of trills, basically - in the bass (pardon me, baritone), they sounded like nothing more than rocks being shaken about. (This might have been "For behold darkness" or "The people that walked" but I don't quite remember.) Having analyzed the bit in the second part for music history, beginning with "There were shepherds", it was fantastic to hear another rendition - and the soprano didn't overload too much; her voice simply rang.
All in all, amazing. But I'd still rather have gone to the sing-along - alas!
Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/101875.html.