Click for the day’s photos:
A point of introduction: Ray Bailey here; I’m the shorter (and lower) of the two basses with very short hair. So far, Stephen (the blond tenor, if you’re keeping track) has done most of the bloging, but I volunteered to write tonight. It was a full day, to say the least.
Breakfast at 9:30 has become somewhat standard, as has rehearsal at 10:30, during which we spent some time cleaning under the fingernails of our competition selections. This is the kind of rehearsing I enjoy most, because it’s the kind of detail-work that groups so rarely have the chance to do, and I believe these subtle details are what separate good music-making from great. After a very encouraging rehearsal, many of us splurged on a delicious seafood lunch at a restaurant called Aiten-Etxe, where the staff were extremely friendly and patient in helping us to “decode” the menu selections. Lunch ran a bit longer than expected (something on the order of two-and-a-half hours), so there was little time to waste in getting to the bus for our 4 p.m. departure.
We arrived safely in Tolosa (where it was cold and rainy, perhaps colder and rainier than Zarautz) to sing in the two spaces where we’ll perform in competition. The first is an amazingly resonant and beautiful chapel, where we’ll sing our sacred program. Our quick run-through of the program went quite well, once we managed to focus on Josh’s conducting, rather than the beauty of the space. (I’m always overwhelmed by the majesty of the monuments mankind has erected to various faiths over the centuries.) We had just enough time to wander through a bit of the Old Town (and grab coffee) before trekking through the rain to the space in which we’ll sing our secular set: a very modern, and acoustically very dry, theatre. That space, for us, will be a challenge; we will have to listen much more closely to each other, timing each breath and each consonant entrance and release very carefully so as not to damage the, in some cases, intricate and fragile sonic fabric of our selections.
After rehearsing (Did I mention that we are allotted only fifteen minutes to rehearse in each of the two spaces?), we had some time to kill, so some of us went back to the café from earlier (where it was warm and dry) and had delicious desserts and hot chocolate. (I had a chocolate tarte (1,50 Euros; in Manhattan, it would’ve easily cost me $5), and a small hot chocolate – and when I say “hot chocolate”, this was basically melted European chocolate, with perhaps a bit of heavy cream mixed in, similarly priced. (I’m loving the current exchange rate; it’s about $1.25 to the Euro. This is the perfect time for Americans to be tourists, and hopefully, good ambassadors – speak quietly, behave politely, attempt to speak their language and learn about their culture.) I’ve digressed; it happens often. Where was I? Oh, yes, the café and all that chocolate.
Having met our chocolate quota for the day, we strode through the rain back to that modern-looking, dry-sounding theatre, to listen to a concert of the large mixed ensembles. Fortunately, music sounds better in the audience than it does to the singers onstage. Each of the three groups (one each from Estonia, South Africa, and Finland), presented a selection of sacred pieces and secular folksongs. Some were familiar to us; some were completely foreign; all were stunning. Personally, I loved the South African group for their resonance and their fantastic dynamic contrasts, as well as their choice of repertoire (We’ve performed Eric Whitacre’s “Lux aurumque”, and one of our secular selections for this competition is Greg Jasperse’s “Voice Dance II” – they performed the original one). I have to say that I was fascinated (and indeed, moved) by the Estonian choir’s folksongs (I have to go research the stories behind them, now, so that I can understand what happened in their respective stories), and the Finnish choir’s rendering of Francisco Guerrero’s lush “O Domine Jesu Christe” and Einojuhani Routavaara’s (sounds Finnish to me) rhythmically engaging “Credo”. After the concert, we ate a very quick dinner in an enormous room with the rest of the ensembles, but sadly, didn’t have much opportunity to interact with them; everyone seemed ready to head back to wherever they’re staying and get some sleep. It was, after all, about 11 p.m. And now, three quarters of an hour later, I’m going to go do the same.
