The Chorale in Israel - July 11

Today is our first Sabbath in Israel. Also our first (and second) rehearsal with orchestra and soloists. It’s always so exciting the first time you hear the complete realization of what you’ve been working on. And since, when we performed the Sacred Service earlier at the Central Synagogue, it was just with organ, this is the first time many of us have heard the full orchestration. It’s a wonderful orchestra, especially the strings.
We were out from under that overhang, on risers, and the sound difference was amazing. I was proud of us. The first thing we sang was an a cappella section, and when we finished the orchestra burst into applause—which I’m sure was partly politeness, but sounded spontaneous as well.
When Thomas Hampson arrived, there was a certain amount of flutter among the female singers. "Look," the alto next to me said, "it’s Don Giovanni!" He sounded wonderful in the cantor’s role, but was still trying to remember to sing "Adoshem" instead of "Adonoi." (We’re doing this to avoid singing God’s name in a secular setting.) It can be kind of confusing when the phrases are so familiar that "Adonoi" just rolls off the tongue automatically.
The soloist doing the spoken part turned out to be a familiar face. He was the cantor from Long Island, who had substituted at the last minute for our Central Synagogue performance, in the singing role. He was supposed to be miked, but there was some technical problem with the mike, and no one could find the technician for awhile. Zubin Mehta really doesn’t like to waste time. "What is this, early Shabbos?" he muttered while we were waiting.
The smaller solos are sung by some of the pros in the Chorale, and they did us proud. I particularly enjoyed watching the orchestra when Hai-Ting, the alto, first came in for her fairly extensive solo. About half the heads I could see suddenly turned round to stare. They clearly hadn’t expected a voice like that to emerge from the middle of the chorus. She got what was definitely spontaneous applause. Jeanmarie is doing the soprano solo, and she actually gets to sing a little duet with Thomas Hampson! (And they sound lovely together).
After rehearsals, we had a Sabbath dinner for the whole Chorale A couple of members did an impromptu candlelighting service, and then we had the most typical Jewish meal you can imagine: gefilte fish, chopped liver, chicken soup (no matzoh balls though), brisket...
Then much of the chorus (including me!) went down to stick our toes into the Mediterranean Sea before bed.

--Janet Pascal