Congratulations to the 9 winners of the coveted chocolate fish:
Peggy Tompkins, Wendy Aitken, Polly Mason, Jane Edwards, Carol Kempton, Alan Edwards, Leanne Veitch, Deborah Dons and Luïsa Pardas.
As a bonus, here is Luciano Pavarotti with Celeste Aida, with the Vienna State Opera in 1984. In the opera Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi, it is sung by Radamès, the young Egyptian warrior who wishes to be chosen as a Commander of the Egyptian army. He dreams of gaining victory on the battle field and also for the Ethiopian slave girl, Aida, with whom he is secretly in love.
Ever heard of the computer game Tetris? Surely just about everybody knows it!!??
Here's a choral version for your enjoyment - tee hee hee
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pazhitnov. It was created on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra- (all of the game's pieces, known as Tetrominoes, contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.
This is the second year in which I've done the Proms. I've been in Dunedin almost exactly two years now (does that make me a Dunedinite?)
I've settled in and am making friends. I'm starting to feel like I belong in City Choir - and I felt a lot more relaxed and ready to cut loose and cause mischief last night.
Who? Me? :-)
This year, I decided to wear blue, as I'd done the red thing last year. It's nice to be able to dress up a bit on stage, and wear something other than uniforms. I just wish we were allowed to wear a bit more bling! Hey, why not? It is The Proms, after all!
A prior performance of Aida in which, naturally, I played the Empress. I'm in the front row of this photo, paying no attention whatsoever to my multitude of minions.
City Choir's piece de resistance for the evening was the wonderful Grand March from Aida. I didn't recognise it at all from our rehearsals, but once I had a snoop at a Youtube of the piece, I recognised it instantly, from the orchestral stuff.
I guess I should berate my parents for not bringing me up "proper", but the truth is, I was too busy listening to dodgy popular music to show any interest in Opera.
Yep, I'm a musical heathen, who listened to Madness and Icehouse, and spent my time admiring Chrysler Valiants and the long, wavy mullets who drove them (my first boyfriend had both) instead of listening to Verdi in her youth.
Verdi - or cruising the beaches in my boyfriend's Charger. How can you blame me!
So shoot me.
Regardless, I had a great time singing the Verdster, pounding it out in best operatic style absolutely fortisissssisisisisisimo!
The top B didn't faze me, either - I just blasted it out full voice, with the rest of the sops! Go us! I swear the walls of the Town Hall vibrated with the sound we made!
Of the individual acts, I'd say that the highlights of the evening were the Doll Song and the Cat Duet, which was staged rather amusingly.
Of the orchestral pieces, I most enjoyed the prizewinning composition, Foreigner in Africa, by Otago student Kathryn Roy, although timing was an issue for the orchestra. I'm really looking forward to hearing more music from her - the piece was so refreshingly alive and rhythmic.
Half time, change sides!
In the first half, we'd sung in standard SATB sections, as we had the Aida to deal with. But in the second half, we did our usual neat trick of switching into colour formation - across the stage in three sections of red, white and blue.
I think we looked pretty specky. As long as you're not colorblind.
The second half, for anyone reading this who isn't familiar with The Proms, is where we traditionally let our hair down a bit. And we did! We hammed it up in "Land of 'Ope and Gloireee" and "Rule Brittania" and other rather stodgy British musical porridge, and we variously tapped, swayed, sniffed and wept at other points of the evening, as is deemed appropriately silly.
We also had fun with the streamers - I'm proud to say the ones I threw landed right in the brass section! Go me! I always was a good shot.
We had fun bobbing our balloons along with the music, and I only wish I'd had enough time to unravel the neck of mine just before "Rule Britannia", so that I could have sung it inhaling on helium!
I guess now I've given away next year's plan. So - who is with me?
In all, it was a lot of fun. I had a ball. By the end of the evening I was covered in pink streamers, wearing a Kiwi flag that didn't belong to me, and slightly inebratiated on the joy of singing. What more could anyone ask for?
So here's to this year's Proms! And here's to next year's, too.
Last Night of the Proms dress rehearsal tonight was good fun! However, a little surprise was that we should sing along with Deborah Wai Kapohe in the chorus of "I could have danced all night" from "My Fair Lady". So here are the lyrics for those of us who don't know them already:
I could have danced all night,
I could have danced all night.
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings,
And done a thousand things I've never done before.
I'll never know What made it so exciting.
Why all at once my heart took flight. I only know when he
Began to dance with me I could have danced, danced,
danced All night!
I wonder if any of you recognise this 'emaciated Ethiopian slave girl'?
I am a current member of the Dunedin City Choir, and last sang the Grand March from Aida when the Orpheus Choir, of which I was a member, provided the chorus for the Wellington Opera Society's production of Aida 'just a few years back…' It was a big, bold and exciting production (which they put on back to back with Marriage of Figaro over a couple of weeks). You can see from this photo how big the production was, and it included the NZ Ballet I think, and a good-sized orchestra. From memory we sang it about 5 times.
It was the most wonderful and exciting experience, and I so enjoyed it. I remember never going down to the dressing rooms between acts, but just standing in the wings watching and listening in my first experience of opera. Charles Naylor played the role of the Pharaoh – the other singers were imported from overseas, but sorry can't remember the names. The singer I most enjoyed was the woman playing Amneris – she had a powerful voice and I can remember to this day the power of her voice when she called for the priests – "Sacerdote!!"
But being an Ethiopian slave meant being 'blacked up' with greasepaint all round the face, arms and shoulders, and legs. That was fine, but getting the damn stuff off was a real challenge. The bath in my flat had a rim around it for a few weeks, which no amount of scrubbing would move without taking the surface of the bath off with it! I was not popular!!! And one's underwear – all white of course before the lovely colours you can get today – just went and seemed to stay a faint shade of grey for some time....
So – who am I? You should be able to recognise me – I haven't changed a bit….. lol
Please leave your answers either in comments to this post (make sure we can identify you), or email answers to info at cityofdundinchoir.org.nz. The competition closes on Friday 26 February and the winner of the coveted chocolate fish will be announced at rehearsal on 2 March 2010.
What a delightful production is this 1951 version of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger - it is as much about dancing as it is about music.
Dorothy Bond sings Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille (in English) while the gorgeous Moira Shearer dances.
City of Dunedin Choir will provide the choral support in the Southern Sinfonia's production of this song at the 2010 AMI Last Night of the Proms on 19 February in the Dunedin Town Hall.
