Tonight was our dress rehearsal for tomorrow night’s all-Purcell Early Music Hawaii concert at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. It was the first and last time all the players and singers came together to rehearse this glorious music before the concert. Contrary to dress rehearsals for play and opera productions, the singers and players do not wear their concert garb, but come casual as you can see in the photo above.

It’s a time when everyone can get their signals straight, and to make sure that we are all on the same page! In this particular concert, there are many sections which are indicated as being repeated—however, we are not always taking the repeats, to make the concert more efficient. So, of course, this had to be communicated to everyone.

We also discovered that sometimes the singers’ and players’ parts did not always match—sometimes the orchestra had repeats while the singers didn’t. Hopefully, we got it all straightened out for the concert!

Director Scott Fikse is doing double duty—he is not only conducting the choir and orchestra, as seen above, but at several points in the concert, he will turn around and sing the bass solos and a two-bass duet with Keane Ishii. Those sections needed a little extra attention because during those solos and duet, the orchestra will have to play without a conductor.

Do you remember that is something the late Carl Crosier did? I remember he said it was particularly challenging when he would conduct an energetic and vigorous chorus, then immediately have to turn around and be calm while he sang the alto solos, trying not to sound too breathless.

By the way, Scott is sounding marvelous on his solos, and has to sing many low notes, including low Ds and low Es. And he can be heard above the orchestra, to boot!

Other particularly lovely solos will be sung by alto Sarah Connolly and Naomi Castro. Naomi will be singing the famous “Dido’s Lament” from Dido and Aeneas.

If you want to take a sneak peek at the program, you can click here.

Tickets will be available at the door or online on the Early Music Hawaii website. It’s a concert you won’t want to miss—such appealing music performed at a high level.