Pictured The Chorus and Jonathan Abarbanel guest conducting at the WCPA holiday show.
Windy City Gay Chorus ( WCGC ) , the mixed lesbian and gay group Unison, and the Windy City Slickers—all collectively under the umbrella of Windy City Performing Arts—celebrated the holiday musically with their concert 'In Peace.' A peace theme is certainly timely for a Christmas concert. And, of course, the theme of gay pride that naturally emerges in any WCPA concert is also especially a propos this year. Humor and the holiday spirit were tempered with serious, even somber works, in an event that was, overall, an emotionally satisfying musical evening.
The concert opened with a trumpet solo by Tom Kowalczyk, who was joined by other members of the Lakeside Pride Brass Choir. The plaintive folksong 'I Wonder As I Wander' was transformed into the opening of the first movement of Gloria by composer John Rutter. As the work progressed, the combined Windy City Gay Chorus, Unison Chorus, and Windy City Slickers, under the baton of WCGC conductor Ron Guthrie, rose to a powerful crescendo as the vocalists sang their hearts out in Latin.
Unison, led by Dr. Wilbert O. Watkins and accompanied by pianist Claire Bigley, introduced their segment of the program with a percussive 'Hodie!' with David Loofbourrow on kettle drums, and then segued into a softer Ave Maria by Franz Biebl, full of subtle modulations and harmonies. Ralph Vaughan Williams' Wassail Song, directed by Unison's assistant conductor Beth Bellinger, featured an ensemble of eight singers, and was followed by a Gaelic Blessing, also by Rutter.
The Windy City Slickers displayed a sweet, sentimental side with 'Another Christmas,' singing: 'Every day's a present, every moment a surprise. I'm filled with wonder every time I look into your eyes.' The message, true enough, was: we should enjoy each other's company while we have it to enjoy. The Slickers' second-set opener was more along the lines of their expected campy antics, as they became children whose holiday cheer was dampened by the musical message: 'Enjoy life while you can, someday you'll be dead.' Bummer! All ends well, however, with a particularly amusing Neil Diamond impersonation by Ray Lesniewski.
WCGC got in its own mirthful moments by inviting Jonathan Abarbanel, sporting a jester-like elf hat, to lead the audience singalong medley, including 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer', 'Jingle Bells', and the obligatory holiday concert gay-apparel-donning carol 'Deck the Halls'. Unison, too, made merry with 'Cold and Fugue Season', a Bach fugue with lyrics by Ellen Foncannon about sneezing, coughing, and Kleenex. This was followed by the often parodied 'Twelve Days of Christmas'—here called 'Twelve Days After Christmas'—with an entertaining new twist, including some whimsical props: 'The first day after Christmas my true love and I had a fight.' Before long the partridge has been shot, five fake rings have turned fingers green, the swans have drowned, and the geese have been sent to the ASPCA.
Other highlights included WCGC's lovely rendition of 'Do You Hear What I Hear', with brass instruments, arranged to accentuating the contemporary theme: Pray for Peace. Unison did a lovely version of the Mel Torme's Christmas Song ( you know, chestnuts roasting on an open fire... ) with beautiful harmonies and an excellent solo by baritone Sean Egan. Another rousing song was Ocho Kandelikas, a celebration of Channukah written by Flory Jagoda, a Sephardic Jew and WWII survivor, in the traditional Ladino language, a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew. Robinlee Garber was featured on guitar.
The concert I attended, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Andersonville, was one of three WCPA presented for the season. The performance space was put to creative uses, making the most of the venue; this was especially true for the traditional 'Masters in This Hall.' For this piece, WCGC spread out into the four corners of the hall, with basses and second tenors singing behind the audience from the balcony, and the first tenor and baritone sections in the front corners. The groups then reunited at the front of the hall for a contemporary version ( written by Morten Lauridsen ) of the 16th century polyphonic 'O Magnum Mysterium'.
The concert concluded with 'Peace, Peace' ( by Rick and Sylvia Powell, arranged by Fred
Bock ) with flautist Jon Niehus. Holding hands in the aisles, in a big circle that enclosed the central section of the audience, the singers interspersed these words with the holiday stalwart Silent Night. It was a perfect sentiment with which to end the evening.
If you are interested in joining WCGC or Unison, auditions will be held for both choruses Jan. 3; ( 773 ) 404-9242 or email info@windycitysings.org . WCPA's spring concert will April 2, and their gala spring benefit is April 16 featuring Kristin Chenoweth.
Gay Men's Chorus Sings the Season
By Catey Sullivan
You can have your sing-a-long 'Hallelujah Chorus' at Symphony Center. I'll take the uproarious, interactive choral celebration of Handel as presented by the Little Brothers of the Left Hind Leg of the Lamb of God.
Wielding stacks of flashcards intended to help the audience participate in the sing-a-long portion of the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus magnificent Christmas concert, the Brothers descended into frenzied chaos faster than you can say 'The Lord God Omnipotep Reineth.'
Somewhere, composer Frederick Handel is laughing his head off.
Which is not to say the CGMC's annual holiday concert, 'Fa la la, la, ( blah, blah, blah ) ' was not also packed with music of haunting reverence, and elaborate displays of glorious harmonies.
Conducted by Patrick Sinozich, the 90-minute concert was a near-perfect combination of the sublime and the ridiculous. If you missed it, log on to www.cgmc.org and get yourself a copy of the season schedule so you don't miss the chorale's spring performance.
Key to the consistent enchantment of 'Fa la, la, la ( blah, blah, blah ) ' was its ingenious mix of the inspirational and the irreverent. On the one hand, there were pieces of soaring glory such as Morten Lauridsen's 'O Magnum Mysterium.' Performed with an undercurrent of bass voices that unfurled like a thick carpet beneath the exquisite delicacy of the higher tenor harmonies, the piece was a powerful prayer for all faiths. And when lighting designer Margaret Nelson bathed the choir in subtle, ice-blue twilight at the hushed finale of the piece, well—it was a spine-shivering moment of beauty.
Then there were pieces such as the title tune, which addressed the season inconvenience of being blinded by tinsel, forced into family gatherings one would just as soon skip, and that most disquieting holiday sensation that one is being stalked by Santa and Rudolph.
As an undercurrent of singers murmured 'zoom zoom zoom' in a spooky minor key Edward Gorey would have loved, the rest of the chorus harmonized about the more treacherous aspects of the Season of Good Will Toward All, making 'Fa la la la ( blah, blah, blah ) ' a highlight of the production.
Also quite marvelous was the quartet of letter-jacket-wearing lads who emphatically delivered the wonderfully goofy 'I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.' Just so. Who doesn't?
In 'Winter Song,' the mood alternated between verses of Gothic foreboding and cozy cheer as verses telling of wolves howling at the doorway, chilling winds and shrieking ice storms gave way to stanzas of warmth, camaraderie and fireside fellowship.
With 'I Want You for Christmas,' Brandon Vejseli and Richard Williams—decked out in 'Fathers Knows Best'-type sweaters—hoofed their way through a wholesome song 'n dance number evocative of an old Bing Crosby film. Sealed with a kiss at the end, the piece was sweet as a candy cane.
Choreographer Jake Stigers created a fine, funny piece for a subset of the chorus with 'March of the Teddy Bears,' which featured a group of fuzzy-eared fellows feuding with a phalanx of toy soldiers
From the opening number 'Wake, Awake,' when a single singer bearing a candle-lit lantern slowly walked across a pitch-black stage, to the delicate, transcendent closing duet of John Vessels and Scott Cooper in 'Time to Sleep,' the concert was a marvelous seasonal celebration.
CINEMA from 13
expect more lemons.' Perhaps the triumph of the movie will be multiple Oscar nominations—what better way to reward all this suffering—but who gets left holding the bag of lemons? Three guesses.
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Saints and Sinners, which plays at Facets from Dec. 17-23, is another movie in which the Catholic Church plays a starring role. Here, its huge influence over the lives of even those it has dispossessed—like the gay couple Ed and Vinnie—comes center stage. Ed and Vinnie have each gone through difficult coming-out processes ( what middle-aged gay men have not? ) , complicated by their continued devotion to the church ( seen vividly through their association with Dignity—the religion's unofficial, gay facsimile ) . They want to get married—and not just with the cake, the flowers and the DJ—but in a ceremony that contains rituals sacrosanct to the Catholic religion and naturally, forbidden to gay couples.
As the documentary begins, the first feature from directors Abigail Honor and Yan Vizinberg, Ed is on the phone dialing up priest after priest looking for one to perform the ceremony for he and Vinnie. Of course they can't find one and so settle on a Catholic service in an Episcopal Church performed by a Dignity priest. With that question settled at the outset and knowing that the 'wedding' ( the word that both partners insist on ) won't having any legal meaning, the film focuses on smaller roadblocks that stand in the couple's way—like whether or not at the last minute Vinnie's sister will show up, if The New York Times will select the duo as the first Catholic gay couple in the wedding announcement section of the paper, and if taking communion from the Dignity priest is a no-no.
Gay marriage as documentary subject material may seem to be wearing thin but this small, tightly focused film, nicely shot, scored and edited, has some fresh things to say on the subject and the quiet persistence of Ed and Vinnie to get married within the confines of a religion that has 'officially' cast them out is quite moving. www.facets.org
