I Met the King's Singers!

LAST night, I attended a concert by the King's Singers at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. Siyempre super excited ako :) I have their "King's Singers Madrigal History Tour." On the way to the DECC, I warned my boyfriend Chris that I would be acting somewhat like a groupie after the concert and want to spend some time getting autographs. Sabi niya, "Well, just as long as you don't act like a total groupie!" Hmmm, surely choral music groupies are different from heavy metal band groupies! :)

When we arrived at DECC, the parking lot was almost full. And when we got inside the convention center, it looked like everyone (well, at least people ages 28 and above) in Duluth was there. Chris saw some of his co-faculty at UMD and I saw some of my choir mates. I never did see if my two choir directors were there. But I'm sure they were among the sea of blonde and brown heads. Wine was served in the lobby and a company called DJ records was selling King's Singers CDs and music right by the auditorium doors. I was on a budget and already happy with the CD I own, but I did buy their English Renaissance Music Collection. Puro classics kasi, like "All Creatures Now Are Merry Minded"; "As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending'; "Fire, Fire"; "The Silver Swan"; and "Weep, O Mine Eyes".

There were also dishes and dishes of candy. Akala ko kahit anong candy lang iyon. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that they were all cough suppressants. Makes a lot of sense! So I took four and stuffed them into my coat pocket.

Madrigals! Yey!

When I was purchasing my King's Concert tickets two months ago, I wondered what they would sing. Kasi it said that it would be under the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra's Pop Series. Ano raw? Pop? Tapos King's Singers? Baka puro Beatles songs ang kantahin nila. Hindi ko man lamang silang maririnig kumanta ng madrigals. :(



Imagine my pure hapiness when I saw on the program that they were going to sing Madrigals from England sa first part of the program. Nakangiti yata ako the whole time. Tingin ng tingin si Chris sa akin. Naaaliw yata siya to see me so kilig.

Kaya lang, why was there a full orchestra on stage? Grrrrr....I was a little impatient. Buti na lang, they were good :) They played the "Crown Imperial March" by Walton under guest conductor Duain Wolfe. I liked Wolfe's conducting style. He had crisp movements and he didn't dawdle before starting a piece the way I've seen some conductors do. After bowing, diretso siya sa conductor's podium, preparatory beat and wham...nag-umpisa na. May pa-sway-sway pa siya. Some of his movements reminded me of swing steps. I wouldn't be surprised if he was also a good dancer.

When the King's Singers finally entered the stage after that orchestral piece, you could almost feel everyone in the audience sit up and inhale in anticipation. Ano ba itong crowd ko? The rock concert of the geriatric set. O baka naman ayaw kong tanggapin na matanda na rin ako?

The King's Singers started with Thomas Morely's "Sing We and Chant It". Then they sang Morely's "I Love, Alas, I Love Thee", "Fire, Fire", Orlando Gibbons "The Silver Swan" and Thomas Weelkes' "As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending". Check, check, check, check and check! All of those were in my CD. Hehehe. They often had funny (well, funny in the British way..parang Monty Pythons ang delivery) spiels to introduce a set of songs. To their credit, funny and witty naman sila. They had the audience in the palm of their hands....especially me. Buti na lang hindi nagselos si boyfriend. ;)

They sounded exactly the way they sound in their CDs. Pinong-pino. Counter-tenor David Hurley (he's the shortest of the lot and has blonde hair) who sang the soprano lines sounded just a wee bit scratchy during the first song. But after that, wow, he often sounded like there was two of him. Ang ganda ng resonance ng soprano niya. He also had the nicest smile. Kind of reminds me of that actor who played the dad in that seventy's show "Eight is Enough". One of them looked rather young there with the rest. I checked kingssingers.com (my God I sound like a groupie) and found out that his name is Christopher Gabbitas and he's only 24 years old. Siyempre, I was paying close attention to the counter-tenor who sang the soprano 2 and alto 1 lines. This was Robin Tyson, who looked like he had a rather long chin from afar, but--to my opinion--was the best-looking guy of them all in person. They ended the first part with Offenbach's "Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld" and Faure's "Pavane" with the DSSO.

During the intermission, I found free copies of their pictures and grabbed one. Ready na ready na ako for autograph-hunting after the show ;)

Siyempre, Beatles

The King's Singers performed a sequence of British folk songs right after the intermission ("A-Roving", "Skye Boat Song", "The Lincolnshire Poacher", and "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor"). I think it was a good idea for them to explain the songs--with a bit of dry wit-- before performing them. Then the DSSO performed Ives' "Variations on America" which the conductor described as a sort of chopsuey: Ives took many approaches to the traditional American patriotic song, including one that sounded like two marching bands meeting at a corner (and playing two different keys of the same tune). In other words, medyo weird. Pero nakaka-aliw naman.



I wasn't surprised when the King's Singers ended the concert with a set of songs by the Beatles. I was expecting this at one point. They had a very good rendition of "Hey Jude" with the DSSO orchestra. Very good. Very moving. Kaya lang I personally don't like the way it ended. The song was coming to a big climax with the repetitious "Na-nana-nananana! Nanana-na! Hey Jude!" if you're familiar with the song, you'll remember that this part is a crescendo with some pop obligatos thrown in. But somewhere towards the end, biglang nag-mellow. Parang bitin. In fact, hindi parang. Talagang nabitin ako.

They also sang "Mother Nature's Son" (which I thought was a John Denver song, not a Beatles song) and a beautiful and swingy arrangement of "Penny Lane". It seemed many oldies in the audience loved it when they sang "Yesterday". Then their finale song was "All You Need is Love."

Three Standing Ovations

What" Three standing ovations?! It's true! On the first ovation, they came back and sang "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" which brought the house down because they let the audience clap and sing in the chorus. Yun bang bigla silang hindi kakanta tapos maririnig mo lang ang kanta ng audience. There's also a part in the song which mentions colors and they had a gag where they opened their coats to reveal the corresponding colored lining. Hehe.



On the second standing ovation and the second encore, they sang--and I'm not sure of this--a song called "You Are My New Day." At this point, iniisip ko, siguro naman the audience will let them go after this. Musicians love standing ovations, but I'm sure pagod na rin sila. But sure enough, after the group exited the stage the audience was still stood there clapping.

O sige, one last time. This time they sang a song that I've already forgotten as I write this. But I remember that it was a more mellow and serious song. And they said "thank you for joining us this evening" before singing it. I was revlieved when people started moving out of the auditorium after they left the stage for the third time.

Groupies Unite!

There were six King's Singers. So I needed six signatures. Of course, I wasn't the only one with this intent in mind. There must have been at least five familiar faces at each autograph "station". And I really didn't like the middle-aged lady who engaged each singer in looooooong conversations unmindful of the long line of other giggly middle-aged women and thirty-somethings like me! Arrrrgh!!


Me and Philip Lawson

Tyson and Philip Lawson--the baritone--where signing autographs near each other. Behind them was the young guy Gabbitas. Gabbitas eventually inched his way towards the lobby where there was fresher air. And I know why. Some fiendish person--probably that annoying and loquacious middle-aged woman with the hair extensions--let out a putrid "silent whisper". I had my picture taken with Tyson, the counter-tenor, then moved out into the lobby to breathe. Gabbitas was there with a bunch of giggling teens, tweens and twenty-somethings...and that annoying middle-aged woman with the hair extensions! Arrgghhhh!


Me and David Hurley...Yihee!

I knew I couldn't leave the building without getting David Hurley's autograph. He was still inside the anteroom. I asked for his autograph and told him I was a big fan from the Philippines. Mabait naman siya. He asked me if I had moved here to Duluth and I told him I was just here for school. He asked me what course I was taking and if I also sang in a choir. I told him, Environmental Education and yes. They had never been to the Philippines yet, he said and I told him I had to order my King's Singers CDs from Amazon.com. After chatting, I asked him if I could have a picture with him (boyfriend was standing near us with the camera. A twenty-something girl gasped as my boyfriend whipped out his camera and took our picture. I'm quite sure it was a "oh-my-God-why-didn't-I-bring-my-camera" gasp instead of a "that-thirty-something-asian-groupie-girl! gasp.

After that, I got Paul Phonix, the tenor, to sign my picture. The bass singer, whose name is not on the website, was nowhere in sight. Sayang, he was the funniest of them all. Oh well...

Thus ends my King's Singers concert adventure. Tie me to a chair so I won't follow them to Minneapolis and their other concerts here in the US!