Happy Easter

So its Easter Monday morning here. The sun shone warm and bright Friday and bright and windy yesterday, but today it is raining and blowing a gale (literally) - the worst weather by far this trip. So, a good day to curl up inside, stay warm and catch up on some blogging. 

Still no news of a baby. Belinda and George were over for lunch yesterday ... so they keep waiting ...

In the beginning (of Easter) ...

The highlight for us so far was a day trip to London with Sean & Ruth & Martha to see and listen to and REALLY enjoy the Royal Choral Society's 140th annual Good Friday Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. They support four singing soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass) and most of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Here is a short video (20 sec) taken just before it got underway to give you a glimpse of the interior of the Hall if you have not had the good fortune to visit.

The following shot gives you a sense of the scale of the "cast" ... a little blurry but they had all arrived on the stage when this was taken and the Oratorio began shortly after. You can see the conductor just arriving on the front left of the stage, the four soloists already across the front (two left of the podium and two right), the orchestra, the choral section and the organist at his keyboard behind the largest set of organ pipes I'm sure I have seen. The choristers comprised four sections, two sets of women on either end (sopranos & altos) and two sets of men either side of the centre (tenors & basses).

Don't be lulled into any sense that I am across all this - remember my original feeling waiting for afternoon tea at the Ritz! What was that “Oratorio” bit above? I only know to call it that and not “the show” because I have a copy of the program … and even the person with the technical explanation in the program is at pains to explain a range of reasons it is not technically one, even though it is “regarded as the archetypal oratorio”; go figure ... sounds like a journal article J! Notwithstanding, it was bloody good, even to tone deaf ears!

For the benefit of others who, like me count yourselves among the “great unwashed” (and I recall something from my dim lapsed Catholic past about feet being washed as part of Good Friday services?) the Messiah tells the story of the birth of Christ, his (yes, we are expressing this in the traditional christian manner) Passion and Crucifixion, his resurrection and our redemption. I will add some more on the emphasis a little later.

Parts II & III were definite highlights with much more engagement by the whole orchestra and the choir in terms of volume and number of crescendos and dramatic effect. At one point it felt like we were actually in church as everyone in the Hall (not just on stage) stood up during a pause between arrangements but without any clapping (imagine the end of Act I before interval ... everyone claps, everyone stands up to stretch the legs and begin the battle for a place in the dunny ... well, this raising was towards to end of Act II but clearly not at the end. So up we stood. We were standing for the Hallelujah chorus - and it was well worth it .. fantastic and sent a chill through your body and a tear to your eyes. The human voices and such music was really a joy to behold (which I guess is what the resurrection is meant to be all about). Then we clapped and sat down again - no battle for a place in the dunny just yet, and so began Part III. Oh, before I leave Part II ... what was the standing up really about? Apparently King George II did it during the 1749 performance and so now we all have to it - I was a bit disappointed to read that in the program because I think I was really starting to believe the resurrection version :) - sorry to be so irreverent!

As it says in the program "only a genius could have composed something to follow the 'Hallelujah' chorus". I admit to thinking that it was all over when we sat back down as it really was something very special. BUT I had noticed a couple of trumpets and a kettle-drummer sneek on stage right (the program only mentioned timpani; wikipedia confirmed my version is OK) ... and this was for Act III and the genius was evident, because it was better ... the addition of the kettle drums added a rich sound to the drama and the trumpet solo was simply excellent and synchronised perfectly with the full chorus to celebrate our redemption. 

Quite the Good Friday afternoon.

Now, mum has told me these are too long (well, more accurately, that they take a long time read) but I do need to extend this one a bit more - they say patience grows with age, so mum please indulge me a little more on this one :).

The our redemption bit ...

This is where I spent far too much time during the performance! Thinking about this "our redemption" bit! The birth, the life, the passion, the crucifixion and even the resurrection I can buy into. But us being redeemed I really struggled with. To try and explain why it was on my mind I need to back track a little to our journey to the performance ...

We drove to Redbridge and caught the central line to Holborn, changing onto the Piccadilly line for Knightsbridge to walk along Hyde Park to the Royal Albert Hall. Martha works in London and travels on the tube every day. She took us right to the far end of the platform to board the back carriage as a safety precaution. Seriously. Her logic was if they are going to blow the train it is more likely to be in the middle where most people can be affected. Good Friday ... on our way to the Messiah ... this was a reality check! Of course, the most recent Brussells bombings are fresh and raw as well, so it was a bit hard not to be thinking about all this even at a sub-conscious level.

Changing at Holborn provided (for me) another glimpse of the evil these bombings portray on undergrounds and the sheer terror they must invoke. We are moving between platforms and in a "foyer" you see the very long escalators going down to another platform and I thought "hmmm not even near the bottom!", and then we caught a similar very long escalator up to our platform and it just drove home the honeycomb nature of where we were and the potential for destruction. 

I know this all sounds very morbid given the experience described at the Messiah, but it was the stark contrast of the two situations and realisations that struck me and I am struggling to describe. So, how does this link to "our redemption"?

Well, that kind of brought it together for me during the performance. Here you are enjoying the privileged experience of the really fine and good things humans have to offer. Then not so far away there is the other side of what we are capable of as humans. We are so intelligent but so unwilling to learn from what has not served us well over millenia - it seems the more we find out about things the worse we are about using it for the welfare of us all ... simplistic I know, but an open sore that needs some urgent attention. 

So the bit about our redemption I struggle with is that we seem very far removed from redemption. The birth, life, death bits all the religions have their versions of and we all see that all the time. But the redemption bit seems to cause some serious issues because it is the bit we all want to aspire to … “something better” … and so really struggle to be content with what we have. Simple really I guess. Greed is the root of all evil. But we do like to have more.

Mum, thanks for indulging. All really is good here and we are enjoying the good things on offer! We certainly are looking forward to more of the same. Here is a parting image as Easter Sunday drew to a close across the fields from The Dairy:

Hope your Easter was happy and safe.