Singin’ von Bingen
I sing with San Francisco Renaissance Voices (SFRV). It is a small choir that focuses on early music. I’ve been singing with them for almost a year, now, and have had the privilege to sing a lot of beautiful music. I bring it up, because I am currently in rehearsal for our biggest project to date- Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen. Ordo Virtutum or ‘Ritual of the Virtues’, is a chant opera, and arguable the earliest opera ever written. It centers around a struggling soul, trying to decide whether to embrace the pleasures of the flesh, or deny them and walk with the virtues, guaranteeing her entrance into heaven. The Virtues try to give their best sales pitch, but the villain of the opera, The Devil, lures her away from the Virtues. They continue their ritual, of singing their praises to each other, and do they win the soul back? Does she deny The Devil and her body? Well, you’ll just have to come see one of the five performances we’re putting on.
The rehearsal process is a bit strained. We meet only once a week, continuing our standard choir rehearsal schedule. The problem is, typically we have our music for our concerts, but this is a performance, and we are expected to memorize it. So, a three hour rehearsal becomes half memorization time and half choreography time (that is right, there will be dancing.) We have sung quite difficult music before, and this music is all chant, so it isn’t too tough- but this is definitely the biggest project we have ever taken on. And we are sweating.
But here is the up-side. We’re really good, and no matter what, the performance will be beautiful. We are wearing Indian saris, and learning Indian dancing. Though it is 70 minutes of chant, it is really beautiful, and we hopefully will make it as fun to watch as it is to listen to.
And a note to the few who read this: my website is not done, yet. It is a work in progress. Just…you know…throwing that out there.