Aida competition part 2

And the answer to our Aida competition is: Loraine Whitwell

Congratulations to the 9 winners of the coveted chocolate fish:

Peggy Tompkins, Wendy Aitken, Polly Mason, Jane Edwards, Carol Kempton, Alan Edwards, Leanne Veitch, Deborah Dons and Luïsa Pardas. 

As a bonus, here is Luciano Pavarotti with Celeste Aida, with the Vienna State Opera in 1984. In the opera Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi, it is sung by Radamès, the young Egyptian warrior who wishes to be chosen as a Commander of the Egyptian army. He dreams of gaining victory on the battle field and also for the Ethiopian slave girl, Aida, with whom he is secretly in love.

Choral TETRIS

Ever heard of the computer game Tetris? Surely just about everybody knows it!!??

Here's a choral version for your enjoyment - tee hee hee



Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pazhitnov. It was created on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra- (all of the game's pieces, known as Tetrominoes, contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.

Read more about Tetris...

I could have danced all night

Last Night of the Proms dress rehearsal tonight was good fun! However, a little surprise was that we should sing along with Deborah Wai Kapohe in the chorus of "I could have danced all night" from "My Fair Lady". So here are the lyrics for those of us who don't know them already:

I could have danced all night,
I could have danced all night.
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings,
And done a thousand things I've never done before.
I'll never know What made it so exciting.
Why all at once my heart took flight. I only know when he
Began to dance with me I could have danced, danced,
danced All night!

Aida Competition

I wonder if any of you recognise this 'emaciated Ethiopian slave girl'? 

I am a current member of the Dunedin City Choir, and last sang the Grand March from Aida when the Orpheus Choir, of which I was a member, provided the chorus for the Wellington Opera Society's production of Aida 'just a few years back…'  It was a big, bold and exciting production (which they put on back to back with Marriage of Figaro over a couple of weeks).  You can see from this photo how big the production was, and it included the NZ Ballet I think, and a good-sized orchestra. From memory we sang it about 5 times. 

It was the most wonderful and exciting experience, and I so enjoyed it.  I remember never going down to the dressing rooms between acts, but just standing in the wings watching and listening in my first experience of opera. Charles Naylor played the role of the Pharaoh – the other singers were imported from overseas, but sorry can't remember the names.  The singer I most enjoyed was the woman playing Amneris – she had a powerful voice and I can remember to this day the power of her voice when she called for the priests – "Sacerdote!!"

But being an Ethiopian slave meant being 'blacked up' with greasepaint all round the face, arms and shoulders, and legs. That was fine, but getting the damn stuff off was a real challenge.  The bath in my flat had a rim around it for a few weeks, which no amount of scrubbing would move without taking the surface of the bath off with it! I was not popular!!!  And one's underwear – all white of course before the lovely colours you can get today – just went and seemed to stay a faint shade of grey for some time....

 
So – who am I?  You should be able to recognise me – I haven't changed a bit….. lol

Please leave your answers either in comments to this post (make sure we can identify you), or email answers to info at cityofdundinchoir.org.nz. The competition closes on Friday 26 February and the winner of the coveted chocolate fish will be announced at rehearsal on 2 March 2010.

The Doll Song

What a delightful production is this 1951 version of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger - it is as much about dancing as it is about music.

Dorothy Bond sings Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille (in English) while the gorgeous Moira Shearer dances.



City of Dunedin Choir will provide the choral support in the Southern Sinfonia's production of this song at the 2010 AMI Last Night of the Proms on 19 February in the Dunedin Town Hall.