Poulenc has been cheering me up.

The past couple weeks, we Allegrans have been digging deep into Poulenc's Figure humaine, a piece that sort of blows my mind. We've sung a lot of Poulenc-- the Gloria, the Mass in G, Un soir de neige, and Litanies a la vierge noire all spring to my mind immediately as pieces we've performed in recent years, and I'm probably missing some-- and to some extent we have a good feel for that unique Poulenc sound that's so rich and weird all at once. But still, Figure humaine is a real challenge. The piece is so darned awesome, though, that the work is fun.

This has been a dark couple of weeks. It's raining and grim all weekend in Boston, and I feel like I've heard nothing lately but crappy news about how the world economy is mush and so forth. And at this stage in my learning the music, it's an intellectual exercise, something challenging and diverting and fun that can take me outside of my own worry-steeped brain. We all know that listening to music can be transportive and moving, but learning music can have that effect as well. I've been really glad to devote the time to Poulenc, who, when he was writing this in Nazi-occupied France, frankly had much bigger problems than I do. I'll bet composing this was freeing for him too.

The movement I've been enjoying the most lately has been the 5th, Riant du ciel et des planetes-- Eluard's poetry in this one is so sardonic, and the music is so glib and stark, that it's been good fun and seems to suit my mood. (At least I THINK the poetry seems sardonic-- my French dates back to high school and is nothing near fluent!)

The concert for Obama was awesome...

This past Friday night, September 12, I went to National Anthem: Classical Musicians Unite to Elect Barack Obama, at Jordan Hall. Put on by David Kravitz and Charles Blandy-- not only local singers, but apparently also political bloggers at www.bluemassgroup.com-- the concert was amazing: three and a half hours of music from an array of local musicians, all of it really fantastic. Considering I got in for $20, and that all that money was going to the Obama campaign directly, I've never gone to concert that was a better value. Highlights for me personally: Krista River and Lisa Saffer doing the duet from La Incoronazione di Poppea, the MarNi Duo playing selections from Porgy and Bess (OK, who WERE they? I'd never heard of them, but I will absolutely be looking for them around town from now on), and "Soave sia il vento" from Cosi fan tutte, sung by Amanda Forsythe, Majie Zeller, and David Kravitz. Truly, though, every performer seemed to have put their heart into the night, and all the music was really stunning.

At the beginning of the night, they announced that they'd raised over $50,000 for Obama, and I'm not surprised-- the hall appeared to be completely sold out! I saw lots of singers and board members from Coro in the crowd, and a lot of the performers have worked with Coro before-- it was fabulous to see them again donating their performances for such an important cause.

Check out www.obamaconcert.com if you're curious about the rest of the roster.

Rehearsals begin for our 2008-2009 season!

Our first rehearsal of the new season was Sunday, September 7. As always, it was great fun to see everyone, to meet the new members, and to get cracking on some new music.

For this concert, we're performing two big French pieces: Francis Poulenc's Figure Humaine and Gabriel Faure's Requiem. As a longtime choral singer, it's almost flukish that I've never done the Faure Requiem before, but it's true. Most of the rest of the group seems to have. We spent most of the rehearsal reading it and getting it into our ears, which is not difficult, considering how totally gorgeous it is.

Towards the end of rehearsal, we started in on the Figure Humaine. Quite a few years ago, before I joined the group, Coro did this piece, and what I've heard about it mainly involves the fact that it's WICKED HARD. I can already tell that it's going to be. As Coro fans know, we do a lot of Poulenc, and all of it's challenging, but this is going to be on a whole other level, at least for me. The piece itself, though, is tremendous-- I've been listening to a recording I have of the Groupe Vocal de France performing it, and I can't believe how great it is. I hear something new each time I listen to it.

All you who attend our concert on Sunday, November 16 are going to be in for a real treat. You'll get to hear two choral masterpieces of the 20th century-- one that's probably an old favorite, and one that's frankly not performed enough.

More information on this concert to come, so check in frequently!