Mini-holiday In-Town

Last weekend, Bob ran the Tucson half-marathon. Let's just say, the shuttles depart between 5-6 am from the parking lot to haul 3500 runners up Oracle Road the 13 or 26 miles. For those of you not familiar with Tucson, the Tanque Verde area is at least an hour away from the shuttle stop. So, we piled into the car on Saturday and had a mini-break over on the NW side of town. The runner has a chip laced onto his shoe, so it didn't really matter when they started, but you had to be there. Bob was on the shuttle and at the start, and finished in good time. This also was the culmination of running all 10 master's races locally. It turned out to be a beautiful day (after 2-3 days of wind and rain). We enjoyed the little in-town vacation.

Next up was the Messiah Sing-Along which they say is the oldest Messiah Sing-Along in the country - 31 years old. Can anyone break that record? We sat on the edge of the tenors near the sopranos, and had fun reading the score. An added positive feature was getting to bounce up every time the chorus sang (remember that half-marathon?). I can't say we contributed much to the musicality of the evening, but I managed not to belt out any hallelujah's during a rest. This version ran through some of Part II & III, and I have to say, the line, "Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?" caught my ear.

Handel's Messiah was quite controversial back in the good ole 1740's when it was composed. He was well known for his theatrical music, and the fuddy-duddy's of the day considered his work to be inappropriate. It was first performed in Dublin in 1742 at a Music Hall, and crossed the Atlantic in 1770 for a partial performance in George Burns Music Room in a New York City Tavern. It was Christmas Day, 1818, before the entire oratorio was performed in Boston. Listening to the singers, you can't help but notice various extemporaneous parts. That tradition began from the get-go, and it was the 1750s before a fairly standard version appeared. Want more details? Check out gfhandel.org