Gala concert

This evening Toronto City Opera had its fundraising gala concert.  I was in the chorus that sang the Slaves' Chorus and the Brindisi and I had it all memorized. (The Spoon River Anthology poem I'm still working on.)

We had a wide range of numbers.  Tetyana sang "Song to the Moon" from Dvorak's Rusalka, which I'll be seeing the weekend after next.  Carrie Parks sang Musetta's waltz from Puccini's La Boheme.  Some women sang a quartet (or was it a trio?) from Verdi's Falstaff while some men did that "Women, Women" number from Lehar's The Merry Widow.  There was also a French song that sounded like something Edith Piaf sang (though it wasn't one of her songs), and one of those Neapolitan songs that Caruso sang.

Someone whose name I forget sang the Laughing Song from Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus.  When we were doing that show at the opera five years ago or so, I was playing the Farmville game.  So Fledermaus music always reminds me of Farmville.

The Japanese girl sang Luigi Arditi's "The Kiss," which was in one of those piano books we had when I was young, though I couldn't find it in my recent search.  I remember that brother John wrote under that title "in concert." (Back then KISS was the big rock band of the moment.) Under the waltz "Over the Waves" he wrote "Ugh." Under "Soldier's Chorus" from Gounod's Faust, he wrote "We've got your number," referring to a Monty Python skit.  And under Anton Rubinstein's "Romance" he added "is dead." At my suggestion, he also put "So is" in front of Rubinstein's name!

Beatrice announced that next year we'll be doing Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera and Mozart's Don Giovanni.  I'd been unsure before, but now I think I won't take a break next year.  I'm interested in the Verdi, which I've done with the choir, and I did the Mozart in my first season ten years ago.

I baked gingerbread for the reception after the concert.  Among the other stuff, I liked Yvette's egg and tuna mini-sandwiches.