A busy few days

This past weekend was quite full for us, primarily due to the Messiah performances on Saturday and Sunday.

It all began Friday afternoon at about noon for me. The run-through rehearsal of the performance began at 2 p.m., but since my solo is the very first item after the overture, I had to start warming up my voice around noon. It takes a minimum of one hour (and preferably 1.5 hours) of warming up to get all of the muscles responding and air passages cleared up. So with that done Shelley and I went to the rehearsal. Overall the rehearsal went well.

Immediately afterwards was the city's Christmas tree lighting with a parade. The parade is one in which anyone who wants to participate is welcome. The little kids get glo-sticks and the older ones and adults get candles. With each person bearing a light, we walk from the north end of the city to the center, where the tree is located, about a quarter mile. There was a little proclamation, the tree was lit, the high school band played a few carols, and then we were done. Free hot apple cider was provided.

Sabbath, of course, meant I led out the Sabbath School and had the sermon. We had a quick, though not necessarily light, lunch. I tried to avoid most dairy products which could affect my singing in adverse ways.

Since the performance was at 7 p.m. with all participants gathering at 6 p.m., that meant I began my warm up at 4 p.m. That is enough time to go through about 20 minutes of vocal exercises, and then sing through the all of the choruses we would perform in the Messiah. Shelley and I were dropped off at the auditorium at 6 p.m. We went through some last minute items and then we were off to the first performance.

I felt quite nervous leading up to the solo. But as I began, I calmed down a bit and everything went very well. It was probably the best I had sung this piece. The rest of the performance went quite well also. The auditorium was mostly full, probably around 300-320 in attendance.

Sunday's performance was a matinee, starting at 3 p.m. We were to gather at 2 p.m. so my warm up began at noon. I felt much more relaxed this time -- perhaps too much -- because when I began the solo, I must not have had enough tension or concentration because I squeaked a bit on an E, and then that mistake distracted me and I lost count for a bit at the bottom of the first page. Fortunately that was enough to increase the tension and concentration. I spent the next page making sure I was concentrating and counting, and then the rest went fine.

I think two previous days of hard singing was starting to take its toll on my entire vocal system. My lower back and diaphragm muscles didn't seem to have quite the strength they did the day before. For me, the first half of this afternoon's performance felt so-so. Not bad, but not great. The second half seemed to go much better though.

Following the performance, we had refreshments. Apparently the night before, refreshments had run out. With our church providing some 30+ dozen cookies and some others also providing, there was plenty to go around Sunday afternoon. In fact the remaining cookies were divided into three large platters and we brought one of them home.

Yesterday evening, the appliance repairman came by to look at the dishwasher. After taking it apart, things did not look very good. It looked as if we would be going out today to purchase a replacement. But as luck might have it, when he attempted to tighten what was probably a stripped bolt on the impeller, it managed to catch and he was able to tighten it. I'm running a load right now to see if it properly washes a load.

So that's my tale of the past few days.