Hallelujah! Take Three

Whew! Another year of Messiah performances is done for TSOC.

This year, George was in rare form for the Halllujah encore. He turned around and conducted the audience, with occasional arm-waves back at various orchestral or choral parts for entrances. He encouraged the sopranos in the audience to higher and higher notes, and they all seemed to love it.

I'm rather conflicted about the audience singing along on the Hallelujah Chorus, but two people really got to me yesterday. One, a little lady, very simple in her appearance and demeanor, was sitting in the third row, center orchestra, house right. You could have lit a room on the darkest night with the beam from her face as she was singing. Another little lady, fifth row, center orch, house left, was quietly clapping along in rhythm as she sang. You could just tell by the look on her face that she was deriving great joy from this experience.

It is all about the music!