Quote:
…our annual Messiah performance goes up on Saturday, rehearsals all week...no time to spare. The sponsoring body is named Music Worcester, a relatively large organization, but I'm afraid it's going to produce a small audience this year.

You did right to continue on without me. (But if you search, and eliminate all the extraneous stuff, I did squeeze in a very primitive onnicle here.)

Quote:
...never found a subtle way of inserting something about "pictures of red Eric Kunstler conducting" into my after-rehearsal babbling a few posts above, somewhere between the large organization and the small audience…


So. Performance was last night. Well received, I would say; after three standing-O curtain calls the conductor did something I've not seen before in 36 years of performing Messiah: he called for an encore, and repeated the entire Hallelujah chorus, with audience sing-along. And they did. Here's a review of the concert in our local newspaper; please feel free to ignore it. It's written in "critic-speak" - for example, "brisk and energetic" means "too fast" but everybody seemed to like it anyway.

Then today we did selected choruses, at the Worcester Art Museum. Followed by a few carols. Smaller group, piano accompaniment, VERY different acoustics. Interesting contrast.

Now I get to breathe again. At least until January, when it's off to Haydn's The Creation for mid-March. In the meantime the oniclette above still stands.