Dress Rehearsal

Overall, I was very pleased with how things turned out in the dress rehearsal. You'll recall that the objective was to make sure there were no real disasters in the arrangements, and that our stage set up was good for balance. The decision to put the chorus on risers in the pit, and band on the stage behind them was a good one. If you remember far enough back to when we did Carmina Burana, you'll recall that we ended up with something completely different.

All of these recordings were made with a Zoom H4 on a tripod. I positioned the tripod in front of the first row of seats in the auditorium to the right of the piano (which was in the center) so consequently, we got a bit more of the sounds on stage left (actor's left) of the stage and a bit less of what was going on over on stage right (sax section). Still I think we need to move the drumset and tuba further back on the stage for better balance as they are rather heavy on these recordings.

There were really only two pieces that need a lot of work- Within You Without You and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!. With both of these tunes, it is the lack of rehearsal time on the difficult sections that is to blame, and that is my fault. Rest assured, I'll be spending more time on these when we return from vacation. Lovely Rita gets an honorable need-to-rehearse-this-one-too mention because the ending totally fell apart. It is 5 against 4 in some places, so it's not easy, but then again, most of this stuff is not easy.

I'm very proud of this group and how far you have come with this music. We are playing in some unusual keys, and performing a new style of music for us. We are also attempting to do what the Beatles never did- perform this stuff live.

You can learn a lot by listening to yourself. Click away. :-)

Mr. Rabuse