Here Comes Santa Claus

The concert last night was technically fine. It was our de facto dress rehearsal — the first time we ran through the full program start to finish.

In years past, the orchestra members always showed up with lots of holiday finery. Jeremy Reynolds, clarinet, has a great Ho-ho-ho ball cap he wears, missing last night. There were always other Santa hats and big sparkley earrings and red this and green that. The horns tended to string Christmas lights across their stands.

This year? Almost nothing. The chorus members were allowed to deviate from the standard pearls for this concert, and some went wayyyy out there. One of the basses showed up with some sort of red and gold ascot that he didn't really know how to tie. A tenor (no, he's straight; he's just strange) had a large (probably 6" scross) plastic poinsettia blossom pinned to his lapel. A soprano showed up with a red velvet jacket (what part of "black" don't you understand?) and then had to wear her black coat throughout the performance after Bruce took her aside. And in the Green Room beforehand, Bruce went on a tirade because 40% of the singers don't understand that a 7:00 call means 7:00 is when you're supposed to be butts-in-seats, not approaching the music hall! Each person who walked through the door after 7:05 got the same lecture about 7:00 means 7:00.

I asked Shawn Campbell, friend and fourth horn and Director of Education and Community Programs for TSO, what had happened. Had someone told them to tone it down this year? She said no, she figured everyone was just too busy.

But I have my own take on it. It think Jacki Sellers and Vivi Cumplido and all the others who took leave this year must have been the ringleaders and the musicians with the most joie de vivre. And now that they're gone, there's much less joie.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Ho ho ho.