Ramblings on libraries and life upon the wicked stage

Tonight I sang at another summer concert, with many of the same people as last time, and with a similar selection of music.  This one was to raise money for one of those wonderful small village churches that pepper the English countryside, and I can vouch that it’s worth saving, as the church was our concert venue.  The audience was a few dozen local people, filling the pews.  I’m not sure whether it was the acoustics of the building or our collective frame of mind, but we sang better than we ever have before.  Additions to the evening included ‘I Know Him So Well’, and ‘Someone Else’s Story’ from Chess, both of which went down very well (the ladies were magnificent!), and the fantastically moving ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Mis, which is a song that always gets to me. 

For my part, I felt that wonderful electric buzz of excitement several times, and gave probably my best ever performance of ‘Mister Cellophane’.  I also sang a duet, ‘The Last Night of the World’ from Miss Saigon.  This was the first duet I’ve ever performed in a concert setting, and it worked.  It took hours of practice over the last week or so, but it worked, and it was an absolute joy.  Hearing (and feeling) your voice blend with another person’s is simply indescribable.  All mushy and generally thrilling. 

I also did the linking bits of talk between the songs, keeping them short but sweet.  One of my fellow performers described them as ‘factoids’, as I avoided boring things like dates and how many performances shows ran for, opting for more obscure (hopefully more interesting) bit of information.  Revealing, for instance, that The King and I is banned in Thailand (hardly surprising when you think about it) and that Me and My Girl did its best to soldier on through World War Two, despite being bombed out of two different theatres!

It was actually quite sad to reach the end of the concert, and the words of our final song had me on the verge of tears.  The final applause was longer and louder than we could possibly have expected from such a small audience.  I leave you with a quote from ‘As Long As I Have Music’ (said final number, by Don Besig and Nancy Price):

For as long as I have music,
as long as there’s a song for me to sing,
I can find my way, I can see a brighter day.
The music in my life will set my spirit free!