There are few things more joyful than singing the Hallelujah Chorus with 500 people and a full orchestra.
Jeffrey (my friend/coworker) and I went to the Do-It-Yourself Messiah last night. We stopped at Handlebar for dinner, which is this really great hipster vegetarian restaurant. It was delicious, and I'm excited because it's really close to my new place.
When we arrived at the Harris Theater (right next to Millennium Park), I pulled out the tickets and froze. They were were TUESDAY night. I had marked my calendar for Monday. Typical me. I felt so bad. Jeffrey was super nice about it and said he didn't mind coming back downtown the next night. Luckily, they were great and just swapped our tickets, even though it was sold out.
What a great experience! I wish I was more familiar with the music. (When I bought the tickets, I didn't realize that The Messiah is 250 pages long!) I didn't practice much, so there was quite a bit of sight reading happening. And, I suck at melismas, which means that baroque music is not exactly a strength of mine. But it was so much fun to sing, and the soloists were phenomenal. I had heard bits and pieces of it before, but never the whole thing straight through. The spiritual aspect was also pretty amazing. I loved how the music reflects the scriptures. I definitely thought a lot about the text while we were singing, and when I sang, "And he shall reign forever and ever," I meant it. And Handel wrote the whole thing in three weeks! Definitely some divine inspiration going on there.
I think this will become a new holiday tradition. For anyone who likes to sing, even if you don't think you're good, I highly recommend this experience!
Jeffrey (my friend/coworker) and I went to the Do-It-Yourself Messiah last night. We stopped at Handlebar for dinner, which is this really great hipster vegetarian restaurant. It was delicious, and I'm excited because it's really close to my new place.
When we arrived at the Harris Theater (right next to Millennium Park), I pulled out the tickets and froze. They were were TUESDAY night. I had marked my calendar for Monday. Typical me. I felt so bad. Jeffrey was super nice about it and said he didn't mind coming back downtown the next night. Luckily, they were great and just swapped our tickets, even though it was sold out.
What a great experience! I wish I was more familiar with the music. (When I bought the tickets, I didn't realize that The Messiah is 250 pages long!) I didn't practice much, so there was quite a bit of sight reading happening. And, I suck at melismas, which means that baroque music is not exactly a strength of mine. But it was so much fun to sing, and the soloists were phenomenal. I had heard bits and pieces of it before, but never the whole thing straight through. The spiritual aspect was also pretty amazing. I loved how the music reflects the scriptures. I definitely thought a lot about the text while we were singing, and when I sang, "And he shall reign forever and ever," I meant it. And Handel wrote the whole thing in three weeks! Definitely some divine inspiration going on there.
I think this will become a new holiday tradition. For anyone who likes to sing, even if you don't think you're good, I highly recommend this experience!
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