Two reasons for excitement
I have just made my way here from a link on our new web-site (http://www.enniscorthychoralsociety.com/) which has recently made it's appearance. It is absolutely wonderful and is all due to Bernie and Elaine's persistance and effort .
They have done a superb job in producing a very professional and good looking site, packed with information and with some really great pictures from the archives. I didn't realise we had archives ! What else is lurking in them ? In fact Liam O'Leary had pictures from way back to the inaugural meeting and I hope will release them gradually.
Elaine and Bernie have also covered our repetoire and the events we have attended. I thought this was really interesting. I didn't realise we were so experienced and so accomplished. And its all true. Unlike the blog.
This a picture from our last rehearsal. Have you ever seen such a contented bunch of choiristers? Everybody ready to sing their hearts out. And not only their hearts. We have discovered a whole lot of new body parts we never realised we had which are VERY important in voice production. Our diaphragms, our soft palates, our masks, all sorts of muscles.
The reason for all this anatomical revelation is pictured below. We are having some voice coaching from the renowned soprano Deirdre Masterson who is introducing us to the world of operatic singing and the techniques used.
Deirdre is amazing. Think of the great Soprano Battleships, of La Tebaldi, Dame Joan Sutherland Montserrat Caballo (that can't be right. She wasn't called Horse ,was she?). Think of them and then think again. Our teacher is something else entirely. How such a slight girl can produce the volume she does without straining, okay, without visibly straining, and still maintain such a beautiful musical sound is beyond me. We have had a couple of classes with her and she really has impressed everyone with her energy, charm, knowledge and commitment. In fact I can use a word which I have never felt justified in using before but which fits exactly. Feisty. Yes, that's the word to describe her when she tells the tenors to stop being so NICE. Or when she grabs Brian's hand and shouts " Feel my diaphragm working ". Or when she says to the Basses after an unimpressive effort "No, I won't accept that. Do it again." She really is shaking up the lot of us.
The terrible thing, of course, is that Donagh has told us about all these things many times before. Except that he is coming from a different direction and in a different way. But it is working. The sound is improving and long may that continue too.
