Outdoor Performing

Current mental soundtrack: "The Coolin" by Samuel Barber

S&P sang last night at the Temescal Street Cinema. It was an interesting concert. After a week or more of warm, sunny weather, we ended up performing on a foggy, windy day. I dressed appropriately for the weather: long underwear (top and bottom), T-shirt, blazer, dressy scarf, fleece jacket, hair in a ponytail to keep it out of my mouth. I felt really silly putting on my long underwear in June, but was very glad I had done it. The only part of me that was cold was my hands, and everyone in the choir had the same complaint. By the end of the performance, we were all having trouble turning pages with our frozen extremities, and my fingers didn't stop tingling for an hour afterward.

Outdoor performances are always entertaining. We had sirens, a helicoptor, wind blowing the conductor's music, and kids riding bikes in front of the "stage." We made an unusual number of mistakes (probably because we were half frozen): at one point, we lost the entire always-reliable alto section for four measures of the "Geographical Fugue." Every performer has those occasional lapses, but nothing gets the adrenaline going like the realization that the other four singers in your section had the same brain lapse, and there is no one left on your part! Overall, the performance was okay. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and there only a few REALLY "interesting" moments. :-)