Michael Reckord, Contributor
The chorus sings the 'Hallelujah' from Handel's 'Messiah' at Harmonie, presented by David Reid and Friends, at the Alhambra Inn on Sunday. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
THERE WAS much delightful singing in harmony at the Alhambra Inn on Sunday afternoon. The occasion was the fourth in the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company's (JMTC) five-concert season titled Harmonie.
Sunday's concert, I Will sing of My Redeemer, was a presentation by the JMTC, in association with the hotel, of a production by David (Reid) and Friends.
The harmony came from the two dozen or so members of the David and Friends chorale, but there were also pleasing solos and duets. Reid, the chorale's leader and the conductor for the concert, was one of the soloists. The others, guest singers, were Jodi HoLung, Carole Reid, David Tulloch and Douglas Bennett.
As the concert's title suggests, the bent of the music was religious. While music from Handel's Messiah dominated the first half, the second half included songs from the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables, a negro spiritual, a Psalm and items by Bizet and Mendelssohn, among others.
The two-item concert began with the full choir's rendition, with strong feeling, of the hymn God So Loved the World (Goss). The recitative by David Reid which followed introduced the Handel segment.
NINE ITEMS
It comprised nine items, all the well-known arias and recitatives from Messiah. The chorus sang Lift Up Your Heads, the Hallelujah chorus, Since By Man Came Death, and Worthy is The Lamb. Soloists, apart from David Reid, were Debbie Campbell with How Beautiful Are The Feet, Carole Reid with I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, and Bennett with Behold I Tell You a Mystery and The Trumpet Shall Sound.
Notable was a certain dramatic energy and strength of communication with the audience that Carole Reid and Bennett possessed; and was later shown in the second half by HoLung singing I Don't Know How to Love Him, Tulloch with Gethsamane, and the mother and daughter team, Marilyn and Christine MacDonald, with O Lovely Peace.
COMMUNICATIVE ABILITY
That energy and communicative ability was developed, I suspect, from the experiences those singers have had over the years performing in musical productions. It marks the difference between an entertainer and a singer. Even some persons who can sing very well do not necessarily entertain an audience well.
Also singing in the second half, which was lighter in tone than the first, were soloists Yvonne Miller (Ain't Dat Good News), Eugene Skervin (Agnus Dei) and Collette Myrie who sang I Will Sing with the full chorale and I Waited for the Lord with the chorale and sister soloist Marilyn MacDonald.
Adding to the enjoyment that the singers gave was the sensitive accompaniment of pianist Dorothy Degazon. "You'll leave with the music in your ears," said chorale director Reid about the way he arranged the end of the concert with the vote of thanks (by Bennett) coming before the final item, Christ We Do All Adore Thee.
Many probably did, for the final applause indicated that many spirits had been lifted.
