The Day the Dogs Come to Church

In the midst of my rehearsal excitement, I'd forgotten that this coming Sunday, October 5th, is the Feast of St. Francis at my church, the Church of the Holy Trinity. This is the day the animals and their humans come to be blessed, from all over the neighborhood. I have seen a lot of dogs, cats, birds, turtles and some water from the East River, all be blessed by the priests. This year, there will be animal blessings at the 8AM, 10:30AM and 6PM services. I'm always at the 10:30, and it fills up fast. Holy Trinity is the most dog-friendly church I've ever belonged to- it was written up in the New York Post in the past year. For the history of the church and dogs, click on the title above to see Dr. Stephen Hamilton's insightful essay on the church's website. The address is 316 East 88th Street, between First and Second Avenues in Manhattan.

Drinking in Church for Good

Next Tuesday May 6th from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, there is going to be a cocktail party in the nave of the Church of the Holy Trinity. It is the perfect place to kick off the church’s Rieger Pipe Organ Restoration Project. The organ was installed in 1987, so the computer components don’t function as they should (your computer’s not 20 years old, is it?), and add to that 21 years of the grime of the city, it’s kind of amazing it works at all. That’s a tribute to the organ’s Viennese manufacturer, Rieger-Orgelbau. But the restoration, cleaning and new computer will cost $160,000. Famous organists who've performed on this organ are Anthony Newman, Gerre Hancock and Simon Preston, among others.

The party is free, being hosted by Dr. Stephen Hamilton, Minister of Music, and Betsy Foster, Chair of the Renovation Committee. They would love to see you there. The church is located at 316 East 88th Street, between First and Second Avenues. If you have any questions, contact Dr. Hamilton at 212.289.4100.

The accompanying photo shows the organ in all its glory.

Music of the Season

The Dramahound has been derelict in her blogging of late. Christmas is fast approaching, and those presents need to get mailed this week. I haven’t even begun cards, but the ones going to Europe will get mailed this week. In addition to that, I’ve got music to go over (beating out measures with a pencil, with a note from my trusty pitchpipe), and a bunch of writing projects. The new libretto I’ve been working on- the second draft (more like a second first draft) is nearly done, but not quite. The musicalization of a play of mine- the composer and I finished the first song on Sunday afternoon. And the other possible libretto has morphed into songwriting with a third composer. So it’s a busy time.

However, for your listening pleasure, let me tell you about three music opportunities, all at the Church of the Holy Trinity, on East 88th Street in Manhattan (link above). The first is Lessons and Carols on Sunday, December 16 at 4PM. The lessons range from Bible readings to poetry (past years have had selections from Langston Hughes and e.e. cummings). The music this year will be Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols”- the good choral parts, and a harpist as well; and the music of John Rutter and Sweelinck. In addition, there will be many of your favorite Christmas carols to sing along with. It’s too cold this year to sing in Washington Square or Gramercy Park, so come to Holy Trinity on Sunday instead.

Christmas Eve there will be two Eucharist services- one at 5:00 PM and one at 10:30 PM. The earlier service is more geared towards children, and both the children’s choir and the adult choir will perform. The late service begins at 11PM, with a half-hour musical prelude. So get out of your apartment and hear some Christmas music that isn’t Muzak.

The Veil of Forgetfulness

I saw a performance of “The Veil of Forgetfulness” on Tuesday evening. Described as “a mystical opera in two acts,” its libretto and music is by Susan Stoderl, who also conducted. The “art installation” (which I would’ve called projections; there’s nothing wrong with projections, would that we all could work with Wendell Harrington) was by Sarah Olson.

Set in an abbey during the Dark Ages, an abbess (based on the actual Marie de France, whose writing was quite racy for its day), her nuns, her very pregnant niece, and their cook (a Jewish woman to whom they’ve given asylum) are the seven keepers of the veil of forgetfulness. The opera ends with the niece dying in childbirth, and the nun with the will-to-power (Regina) trying to make up her mind if she’ll follow her sisters, or go her own way.

“The Veil of Forgetfulness” was performed by seven very talented singers; the two that stood out the most to me (and I admit that I knew their work previously) were Ilya Speranza as Dympha and Tracy Bidleman as Regina. They were accompanied by a five piece ensemble: organ, oboe, flute, synthesizer and cello.

The music was quite rich and varied. In it, I heard every from Cesar Franck, early Francois Poulenc, Phillip Glass’ pulsing tones and harmonies akin to Stephen Sondheim’s “Green Finch and Linnet Bird.” The music is the thing that carries the emotion of the piece. Unfortunately, it is not helped much by the lyrics (the opera is sung-through). The lyrics contain a lot of exposition and explanation; the second act is almost entirely arias that do just that. There are perfect rhymes, false rhymes and no rhymes (there may have been an interior logic to this but I didn’t see it). There were places where lyric repetition would have been welcome for reasons of emphasis, but there was little of that. This resulted in a sense that all the lyrics were of equal weight, which I doubt was the lyricist’s intention.

The music sounded quite difficult to sing (and I can pull a perfect ninth out of thin air when called upon). But this was daunting. The setting of the Church of the Holy Trinity certainly added to the atmosphere the opera was trying to evoke. The next Music at Holy Trinity event (Dr. Stephen Hamilton, Artistic Director)is on Monday at 8PM; James David Christie is performing on the Rieger pipe organ. For more information, clink on the link above.