Messiah.  Just a mention of the name of the famous Handel oratorio this time of year brings up thoughts of Advent. So it was only fitting that we settled in at the beautiful First Church of Christ Scientist in Providence on Friday evening for the first of two performances of this perennial favorite on our weekend calendar.

Candice and I are in Providence to visit with Andrew and to hear him sing with both the University Chorus and the Brown Madrigal singers.

Friday evening’s performance of Messiah was a double bonus, in that this was a “bring your own score” community sing-a-long.  It has been a long time since I sang in a regular performance of Messiah, but I do own a score and brought it along for the evening. Some choruses were like riding a bicycle – you never forget.  Others…well, I decided not to inflict pain on those around me and quickly dropped out of those where my muscle memory wasn’t very good.

Andrew, as you already knew, did a much better job with his singing.  He had the tenor solo for the Every valley shall be exalted… air and did a great job.  I’ve attached a video below of his solo, which I think you’ll enjoy.

Then Candice took over the camera for Hallelujah… as I joined in which the chorus.  You can see the beauty of the church – which is celebrating the centennial of this building – in this video.  All missed tenor notes that you hear are (no doubt) mine.

We’ve just returned from hearing the Madrigal singers present a concert of carols at Smith’s Castle historic site in nearby Wickford.  This was fun – in part because several of the singers had other obligations and we got to hear Andrew sing bass for the first time in our lives!

And after we touch down tomorrow back in Washington, we’ll head over to the National Cathedral for our second Messiah of the weekend.  Canon Mike McCarthy’s interpretation of the piece is wonderful (and yes, if you click on this link, the chorister you see over Mike’s left shoulder is a young Andrew!).

Enjoy!

More to come…

DJB

Every Valley

Hallelujah…