I find myself doing something I haven’t really done before – rehearsing the same piece with two different groups of people at the same time. I must have done it a couple of years back with Duruflé’s Requiem, but then one set of rehearsals was essentially note-bashing.* This time, both have got past that stage and on to interpretation.
The piece in question is Poulenc’s Gloria, and the astonishing thing is that I’ve never done it before with anyone. There’s no anniversary or other reason why it should suddenly turn up twice in a fortnight. One other performer overlaps; the accompanist in the performance with organ has also been rehearsal accompanist for some rehearsals for the other performance.
There are various important differences; I’m singing first sop in one performance and second in the other (there’s little splitting in fact) and although we are using the same edition a few words differ. But there are also lots of minor differences in tempo, pronunciation, and note lengths. I seem to be able to keep the two distinct and not import details from the other choir’s version. And I doubt that I will sing exactly the same way in both, because one performance has a choir of about 20 with organ, the other some 150 with orchestra. It’s a very different experience rehearsing the soprano part with one other singer (who is also doing the solo part) instead of about 50. But it’s been useful because the rehearsals with the larger choir only have the solo part picked out on the piano and you can’t let the other singers find entries for you. It goes without saying that all of this is only tolerable if the piece in question is great enough to withstand repeated exposure to it in a short period of time.
* Something similar also happened a few years ago when after not having sung Byrd’s 5-part Mass for many years, I was asked to sing it in two different places on the same weekend. But its profile had been raised by being performed at the recent Papal visit.