Let us break their bonds asunder.

Singing and working at the same time is hard.

Work was unbelievably busy this week, and it didn't help that I missed Monday due to my unfortunate illness. So many ears, and so little time.

I also did two performances of Handel's Messiah, in Fredericton on Tuesday evening and in Moncton on Thursday evening. I was mostly pleased with how I sang. There was some definite fudging through the more challenging parts, but I managed to start and stop at mostly the right times. And for all of my griping about my place near the orchestra, it turned out to be a great place to sing - I really felt tremendous energy from the conductor and orchestra (especially the oboe!). We were really well-received on Tuesday evening, and I think our performance had a real spark to it. I'm eternally grateful to the lovely alto who saved a spot for me, even though I missed the dress rehearsal on Sunday.

The Moncton performance also went well. The church was lovely. We all fit into the choir loft, so I had to get used to singing so far away from the action. It was hard to hear how well we were singing, but I think we were okay. After we finished "Hallelujah", I heard an audience member utter a soft yet distinct "wow".

You know, it's just really really fun to sing this piece, and I'm so happy I got the chance to do it again. I remember sitting through a couple of performances of it back in my FOH days, and I never really appreciated it. If I didn't have rehearsal on Sunday, I would be sitting in the audience for the Confed Centre choir's performance. And I just discovered the Messiah sing along in Charlottetown on December 28th!! Who's coming with me?