Singing with the ROS, with the RPO

Eric Townell leading ROS rehearsal

I haven’t sung in a large mixed chorus since I lived in Connecticut, over 20 years ago. I sang with two choruses there: the Greenwich Choral Society and the Fairfield County Chorale, but neither suited me. I quit the first after I was fired from being music librarian, a job I was “volunteered” for… I quit the second because I disliked the director, who was much more passionate about his boy choir gig (after his death, his preference for young boys became clearer…). Plus, all that religious music large choruses sing... But when I learned last spring that the Rochester Oratorio Society (ROS) would be singing two of my all-time favorite large choral works – Carmina Burana and Chichester Psalms – I couldn’t resist the temptation to audition.

Chichester Psalms

My college chorus performed this work, and even though Bernstein is very specific that the soprano soloist NOT be a woman, I am quite sure I recall ours being female, albeit with a ‘boyish’ voice. Later, as my fanaticism for Stephen Sondheim developed and I devoured any book on him I could find, I learned this fascinating nugget:

“Bernstein was nothing if not utilitarian with his music, and the ‘Officer Krupke’ tune appeared on Sondheim’s desk because it had been cut from Candide…. Less well known than the exchanges with Candide is the fact that a rejected first-scene number for the Jets, ‘Mix!’ reappeared nine years later as the ‘Lama rag’shu goyim’ section of the slow movement of Chichester Psalms. Few choristers singing this work can have been aware that the ‘heathen’ were originally raging to Sondheim’s words.

            Mix!

            Make a mess of ‘em!

            Pay the Puerto Ricans back, 

            Make a mess of ‘em!

            If you let us take a crack,

            There’ll be less of ‘em,

            There’ll be less of ‘em.”                                 

(Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals, Stephen Banfield, pp. 35-36)

Carmina Burana – so many consonants, so little time!

This piece is just pure pleasure, both to sing and to hear. Back in my NYC days, I attended a summer sing at Carnegie Hall of this score, and sang a lot of “ta ta ta” instead of the words - I had no chance of actually learning them properly in the two-hour session. So, I looked forward to spending quality time with it under Eric Townell’s expert direction (I am also greatly impressed with his rehearsal management skills). I am taking his first-rehearsal advice to the chorus that “it’s important to sing so your voice feels healthy at the end of it” very seriously, because both performances are going to be long nights! Luckily, the ROS has already performed this work 14 times since the late 1950s (when they actually received a good-luck telegram for Carl Orff himself!), and many times recently, so the core chorus is already capable of performing it. That makes it easier for a newbie to learn, although it’s been a challenge erasing from my mind the spoof lyrics of one of my favorite YouTube videos: O Four Tuna. 

This is going to be an amazing experience to be a part of, and it will be a terrific concert to attend. The ROS is the most organized chorus I’ve ever been a part of, and of course you can’t beat singing with the RPO. I’m also excited that four of our out-of-town friends are going to visit us specially to hear this concert!

For more information on the concert and tickets, click here: RPO website

(What I write is my personal view. That's obviously always true, but I've been asked to add that disclaimer.)