I had Greek yogurt with honey and then
some fruit and pastries for breakfast. Then I went back to the room
to grab a quick shower before our day full of singing. Last night I
started feeling sick, and I'm still feeling that way this morning. I
hope I shake it off and it doesn't become another full-blown illness.
Because coughing, sneezing, and losing your voice is exactly what
you want to happen in the middle of a concert tour.
We started off the day with an
almost-three-hour dress rehearsal with the big group. In the new,
new arrangement in the performance space, I was free of Over-singing
Tenor, but I wound up next to Halitosis Woman. It is difficult to
sing when every intake of breath is the rank smell of your neighbor,
who, admittedly, at least always sings the correct notes. I
eventually found a way to over-angle my body towards the conductor
and step back on the riser farther than I should have so that I got
clean air most of the time, but make no mistake, the struggle was
real. Also, this space was a bit too hot. I came prepared for cold,
with two sweatshirts, because the last places were old and very cold.
This one was modern, and the stage lights made me very warm. There
is just no winning with the temperatures here.
Side note, I took a look around at
their setup, and when I saw the people who worked at the theater
running around adjusting things, the theater techie in me wanted to
go up to them and say hi, and be like, “My People!”, but that
probably would've been weird. Plus, I don't know how to say, “My
People!” in Greek.
Anyway, after a lengthy rehearsal, we
had about three hours of free time, which would have been great,
except that we were in the middle of the industrial part of Athens
where the theater was that we were singing in. There was absolutely
nothing to do. Everyone got food at the same two gyro places right
next to the theater. They obviously slow-roast their meat, because
they had all sorts of it spinning over coals in the front windows,
but one place had one spit that was just goat heads, and the other
place had a whole goat. I guess people eat a lot of goat meat here,
which makes sense, but it's still a weird thing to see. I almost
took pictures, but I thought that might be a little too gruesome to
share with people. The food, at least, was really good. Bobby and I
both got gyros, and they then gave us a free dessert of yogurt and
honey. There was enough food that we could have taken it with us,
but there's no way to reheat it in our hotel room, plus we'd have to
carry it around for the next two and a half hours, so we didn't. I
always feel bad wasting food, but we kind of didn't have a choice
here. After eating, we wound up back at the theater, hanging out in
the lobby with the other bored chorus members while the other groups
rehearsed their individual pieces and we waited our turn for the
performance space. After a while I asked someone at the theater's
ticket booth if there was anything to do around here. He spoke
decent English and directed us to a mall about a half-mile walk down
the road (he gave the distance in meters, but I don't remember what
it was after we figured out the conversion). He was so apologetic
when he was saying how there was really nothing else to do in this
part of Athens, like he didn't understand either why we couldn't have
been bussed back to our hotel or pretty much anywhere else in the
city before our rehearsal. I mean, we could have gone back and
stared at the spinning goat heads in the windows of the restaurants
next door, but that would probably have given me nightmares.
We walked to the mall with some of the
other chorus folk and wandered around aimlessly looking at pretty
much all the same stores as you would find in an American mall.
There was a little Christmas Bazaar going on and a Book Bazaar too,
where I almost bought a book in Greek just to have, but decided
against it. I would never be able to read it and I don't know
anybody who could. They had some cool holiday decorations, though,
including a red throne and a huge Christmas tree, and a neat little
art gallery too. They had one unique thing there, which was a play
place for kids, including riding around on motorized animals with
wheels on them, a rollerblading rink, and a trampoline place. I only
wish these areas were adult-sized, because even as tired as I was, I
so would have found the energy to do any of those things. We found a
super-market in the cellar and got some water and other drinks and by
then it was time to head back to the theater for another hour and a
half rehearsal.
This rehearsal was with only our own
people, and though we all knew the music pretty well, we were all so
tired that we were messing up. I few times I zoned out so hard in
the middle of the song that I lost my place and didn't come in on
time, because I was practically falling asleep standing up. After
rehearsal, we went back to the hotel for supper (pretty similar to
the first night in the regular hotel buffet area), even though it
felt like we just ate recently, and had about an hour after that
before getting ready for our concert. Bobby and I both conked out
immediately after supper, which was probably a mistake, because we
woke up feeling sick due to not sleeping enough. There really was no
way either of us was going to stay awake, though. I was so tired
that my bones hurt.
We barely had a warm-up before the
concert, which was good, because at this point, my voice had been
giving out on me during the first rehearsal of the day and I was just
heavy with a head cold. Perfect timing. I always seem to do
this—manage to get sick right at the worst possible time. I was
really sick a few years ago when the chorus I was in at URI performed
at Carnegie Hall; I found out only later in the week when the trip
was over and I was still feverish and coughing that I'd had pneumonia
the whole time. I really hope that this one is just a cold.
The concert itself was actually pretty
amazing. We got to hear the other choirs sing, and they sounded
really good. We found out later that one of them, the one from
Canada, was an audition choir and all of them were professional
musicians or music majors in their own right. It really showed in
their technical skill. I must say, though, that our chorus's
selections were more varied and I think we visibly had more fun on
stage. The third choir was a small orthodox church choir and they
didn't sing their own songs for some reason in the concert, but just
joined in the big group. I found that to be a bit weird, but
whatever. Above my pay-grade.
Although I was just trying to get
through the concert alive at the start of it, as soon as we started
singing, I was so energized by the music, and the audience, and
everything about where we were. I think that was probably the best
performance that this chorus has ever done. Of course by the time it
ended and the group photos were taken and we were back on the bus, I
was so dog-tired I barely made it up the five flights of stairs to my
room and almost forgot to take my shoes and dress off before passing
the fuck out. Unlike the night before, I slept through almost the
whole night and only woke up once.
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