Today we had an interesting day, for a Friday after finals:
We slept in ‘till late. Then we got some things together and prepared our materials (garlands, decorations, etc) and put them together, along with a big ol’ sign.
By the time 6 O’clock came around we hopped into the car and picked our friend Rachel, a fellow opera singer, and we drove to Old Town. Asher got into his dog suit and we all headed our merry way to Downtown (Asher carried a Yamaha keyboard and stand, Rachel carried a chair, and I carried a box with the decorations, music sheets, booklight, etcetera.)
We set up shop in Old Town Square right by Santa’s shack and, with Asher at the keyboard, Rachel and I began to carol away at some old-time Christmas favorites! She with her beautiful lyric soprano voice and me with my now larger lyric tenor.
At one point a group of carolers dressed as Charles Dickens LARPers approached us and, enthused, joined us for a round of “Silent Night.” Eager to show off, they suggested (with a slight air of arrogance) that they would sing it en Allemand and would we be so kind to “Oooo” for them? Rachel and I exchanged glances and grinned with a “Sure!”- this was, of course, after she and I had already sung it in German earlier that evening (after all, we are opera singers, German is bread and butter to us) and after we had technically overpowered the pipe-thin soprano and tenor in their caroling group (they sounded like amateur choristers, we are two fully-trained professional opera singers.) We let them have their fun, with Cheshire cat grins behind our smiles.
A good-sized crowd gathered, and several times we managed to get a good number of people there. Asher was tremendously popular with the little ones, to whom he gave away glittery treats (pinecones on a stick, sprayed with what looked like the blood of fairies, as they were so sparkly and dazzly.)
At one point I remarked to myself that we had the makings of a joke setup: An atheist, a catholic and a dog go into the park to sing carols…
Having sung our little hearts out, we headed back to the car for we were numb with cold (but warm within!) and made for a fast trip to the local Wal-Mart to stock up on drinks (Canada Dry in three flavors: Raspberry, Lemon and Mandarin Orange) for the movie-watching later in the evening. Having secured refreshments, we got back into the car and made our way…
… to the local IHOP, where we ran into our favorite waitress, Chris (She Of The Amazing Christmas Hair Ornaments, pictured above.) There, Rachel had her first taste of the IHOP Top Sirloin Steak dinner, which is something that shouldn’t be missed for all the world. Having eaten entirely too much (but somehow justified by the fact that we had sung for an hour plus in the cold) we decided to split one of their scrumptious Banana Cheesecakes à la mode.
We talked of many things (including dreams, Rachel sharing a personal dream of hers and me sharing an absolutely absurd dream of mine where my voice teacher & Alfredo Kraus were hosting a party with Mr. Rogers, and I was in charge of the hors d'oeuvres-- for some reason I was supposed to bring a 10 foot cake with Vivica Genaux inside, but I couldn't because Placido Dmingp stole it and wouldn't tell me where he hid it. I was too ashamed to return empty handed so I ran away into the desert) Eventually we made our way out of there and onto the next step of the adventure.
Can you believe Rachel had never seen The Neverending Story(1984)? No, neither can I! While it is far from a perfect adaptation and it doesn’t reach the heights the original and much neglected masterpiece by Michael Ende does, the movie is at least faithful to the spirit of the book, and anyone who has ever even remotely liked the movie should take it as a sign that the book is a must read. Of course, the casting is uneven at times- the actor that portrays Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) does his job well, but the actor that plays Bastian (Barret Oliver) is awful. His awkwardness is compensated near the end of the film when Tami Stronach makes her appearance as the Child-like Empress.
With that, our day ended at 1:29 am with Rachel loving the movie and me promising to lend her our copy of the book so that she may peruse its pages while enjoying her winter break. All in all I must say it was a very pleasant way of spending the beginning of the weekend.
Tomorrow Rachel and I are singing at a Christmas Soirée at the home of the McQueens, who are very supportive of the classical music scene and have a ten-foot-tall Christmas tree in their dining room! Rachel has chosen to sing Sweet Little Jesus Boy (I think that’s the accurate name of it) whilst I chose Zion Hort Die Wachter Singen from Johan Sebastian Bach’s Wachet Auf cantata. Neither of us has had a chance to rehearse with the accompanist and we will do it for the first time tomorrow, five minutes per person, an hour before the festivities are scheduled to begin! I’ll definitely blog about the experience and hopefully take a few pictures. Until then, a good night!
