Has anyone else performed in The Dream of Gerontius?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

I just came from being part of one of the choirs in that huge oratorio-type piece by Elgar, sponsored by my church. Our music director, who's from England, says that it's a very popular piece over there, but in the States, everyone was saying, "The Dream of Who?"

Basically, it's Elgar's setting of a long poem by John Henry Newman about the soul's journey after death. There are four characters, Gerontius (the dead guy, a tenor), the Priest (a bass), and two Angels (one mezzo-soprano and one bass). The sight of God is represented by an extremely loud crescendo from the orchestra.

We had to take about 1/3 of the pews out to fit the orchestra in, and there were 90 singers in all, the regular church choir plus a non-audition group that takes singers from all over the metropolitan area.

Each choral ensemble rehearsed separately, and while the two ensembles sang the same line through most of the piece, there were parts where two or three choirs were going at once. Believe it or not, we first put the choirs together on Wednesday, and we sang with the orchestra for the first time this afternoon.

The choir's tunes are pretty catchy, and they will be ear worms for quite a while.

The main disadvantage for us was that we singers had to stand throughout the performance, which includes a lot of instrumental interludes and endless solo singing.

But the audience received it very well, and as usual, we had a reception afterward with the typical yummy treats made by a member of the parish.

[ironflange]

1. I've sung it

Way back in the late '70s. Wonderful, beautiful thing, and I was fortunate enough to be in the semi-chorus. Naturally, the snappiest material, I think, goes to the demons. I remember the tenor was fabulous, the mezzo was very good too, and the bass, who did double duty, sucked. It really was fun, though, a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

We had chairs, too! :evilgrin:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Yes, the demons' chorus is wonderful

and I have the "Go forth" chorus from the end of the first half running through my head.

I found the orchestral parts to be very expresssive. Our Gerontius was a young tenor hired from elsewhere, the angel was a mezzo who is a section leader in our choir and who won the Met auditions many years ago, and as in your production, the priest and the other angel were sung by the same bass, but he was okay.

[ironflange]

3. Another great demon chorus

Damnation of Faust. I've done that one too, a double performance, here and in Vancouver. The end of that chorus is hair-raising, we first tenors on high B, with giant waves of sound coming out of Berlioz' orchestra. Sure can't beat standing right there for it.