caught in the undertow

[fox]

Okay, so by thirty-three minutes ahead, I mean, of course, seventeen minutes after the original deadline or thirteen minutes ahead of the new one, as I was a victim of the Upload Crash of Doom.  But!  I am now safely uploaded, and all is good, and I can therefore open a beer and talk about a couple of other things.

• One of the hired altos got zapped out of the Messiah chorus tonight.  Apparently at last night's rehearsal, the director (who isn't conducting this concert, but is still our boss, and prepared us for the conductor) spent a lot of time hanging around in the alto section because he was Suspicious, and it turned out? that she hadn't really learned the music.  Shame on her!  The soprano behind me said "I mean, how can a person not know the Messiah?", to which I pointed out that before rehearsals began I knew exactly one movement of the Messiah, so I have in fact learned it all in a big damn hurry.  And, okay, so I learn fast, but you know what, if you're going to advertise yourself as a professional?  You need to be able to sing the stuff 72 hours before the concert, know what I'm saying?  So I'm not sorry she got the boot.  I appreciate knowing that there are standards and they're being enforced.
  
• The alto standing next to me tonight (because I am on the boundary between sections, hurrah, my favorite place to stand, and I almost never get to stand there, because normally the seconds are between the firsts and the altos) told me I have a beautiful voice!  Which is very exciting to hear any time, but from another singer is especially pleasing.  I said it was very nice of her to say so, and she said something about just soaring up to the high notes, and I felt all cuddly and happy.
  
• Holy crap, I wrote the last five hundred words of my yuletide story in like fifteen minutes.  Yoiks!  Must not let situation get so down-to-the-wire in future.
  
• Back to the Future is on Bravo again, and I always wonder:  how come they dub over "shit" ("stuff") and "son of a bitch" ("son of a butthead", which, what?) but not "bastard"?  Also, holy crap, look how young they all were.  Except Christopher Lloyd, who's been the same age since he was on Taxi, but who -- look, this movie came out twenty-one years ago, and you know the guy is still picking scenery out of his teeth.

Comments

[thalia]

And, you know, the alto part for the Messiah isn't even that hard. I've sung probably 75% of the movements, and, yeah, there are some tricky bits, but mostly it's a piece of cake. If the alto who got kicked out sang well enough to be paid for it, she should have been able to learn the whole thing pretty quickly. Sheesh.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Apparently, she's in graduate school for vocal performance (MFA, one assumes, but it could be a plain MA, I suppose), and was recommended by someone the director knows. She had to audition, so it's not like she was here completely on the rec, but still, flaking is bad, but flaking when someone else's cred is going to (or at least might) suffer is even worse.

I know it's a risk, putting people in the small ensemble who don't already know the music when there are only four rehearsals before the dress. But -- exhibit A: me. I strongly suspect they brought me in on account of they'd observed me learning the speedy speedy bits of the B Minor Mass in a hurry, so they had reason to believe I'd learn this stuff fast as well. So assuming she didn't already know it, and her voice teacher or whoever told the director, Oh, but let her audition, because she can learn it in time, and he did, and she didn't, feh.

I'm almost prepared to conclude she was the one he was talking to (obliquely) on, what, Saturday, when he said it was late for people still to be sight reading -- except that came right after "that's a C sharp in the soprano section, please", and I know for a fact I'd just sung a C natural. Maybe he was using the opportunity to Speak To everyone about still sight reading. :-)