All week long, director Tim Carney was encouraging the choristers to invite their friends to the Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival concert on Sunday. “We lost our graphic designer which means no postcards were sent out.” I did see a number of Facebook posts about the June 25th concert from the soloists, Jennifer Lane, Naomi Castro and Karol Nowicki. (The other soloists were Amy Johnson and Kirsten Hedegaard.)

Even on the day of the performance, he said in our pre-concert warmup, “We’ll have a small crowd today and I only made 150 programs. Sorry, choir, I can’t give you a program until we see how many are left.”

Someone then asked, “Should we bring in any extra chairs?” Tim answered, “We already have 250 chairs, which should be plenty.”

And look what Tim sent out after the concert.

Yes, the concert was sold out, and extra chairs had to be brought in!

The concert opened with “Beatus vir” by Claudio Monteverdi, and the performance was bright and happy, just the right piece to open, with the full ensemble. Yes, our theorbo player, Daniel Swenberg, made it to the pre-concert rehearsal in plenty of time, having just gotten off the plane from New York! He was a little tired, perhaps, but it did not show at all in his playing, and the theorbo added so much to the crisp basso continuo ensemble

I thought the performance of Dido and Aeneas went exceptionally well, and all the soloists rose to the occasion. Jennifer Lane had to play two roles (Dido as well as that of the Sorceress), as well as Naomi Castro, who sang Belinda and the First Witch, and Amy Johnson, who sang Second Witch and Second Woman. All of them had to dramatically change their singing styles for the individual characters, which they did with great success. There was solemn drama as well as comic relief, especially in the witches’ scene with Jennifer, Naomi and Amy. The chorus also had to contrast the “Ho, ho” choruses versus super sensitive singing in the last “With drooping wings.”

As soon as Jennifer started the famous lament at the end, I got immediate goosebumps, or chicken skin, as they say in Hawaii… it was so achingly beautiful.

There was an immediate and spontaneous standing ovation as the last note died away.

I am happy to report that the rest of the concert went well, and I was pleased with my solo in the Haydn “Little Organ Mass.” In my last post, I told you about the research I had to do about Haydn’s organ in the premiere of this work, and now I’m determined to visit Eisenstadt, where Haydn spent most of his career. Luckily I’ll be nearby in Vienna in just about a week.

Thank you, Tim, for this fabulous program!