Why I’m like Lohengrin

There was a mildly embarrassing moment at the beginning of our opera gala concert last weekend: as usual, we were all lined up in rows to process on and the names of those on the end of each row (including mine) were read out in turn, so that we could take our place on the stairs backstage. But when it came to mine, no one else moved after me because none of the other singers in my row knew what my name was.

We performed an extract from Lohengrin, the famous wedding chorus. Unlike the times when I’ve sung this at actual weddings, we sang the central section for upper voices. (The short interlude which follows this was surely the most beautiful music in the entire concert.) Wagner was also represented by the Act 3 chorus and chorale from Meistersinger, though I’d rather have had the chorale from the opening scene of the opera, which turns the Meistersinger theme into a hymn tune which made it as far as the English Hymnal. Clever old Wagner – he should really have written some more hymn tunes.

Puccini featured strongly, in the shape of chunks of La Bohème, O mio babbino caro and as the grand finale Nessun Dorma (with a reprise of the tune for the chorus so we got the top B near the end). I was sat near the percussion section, and was interested to observe how he uses little touches of percussion sparingly. The only Verdi was the Grand March from Aida, and the other choral contributions were a chunk of The Pirates of Penzance and a lower-voices chorus from The Magic Flute. There were other items from our soloists, and all the programme was introduced by Donald Maxwell.

I haven’t done this sort of concert before, and it’s a good way to get to sing repertoire which I wouldn’t normally perform. The poor weather probably deterred people from turning up to buy tickets at the door, but we had a good number to sing to.