Part 1 – How singing with over 55 Canadians in Florence changed my life in less than a week!

Many of ye may not know of the “singing” me. When I lived in West Cork between 2010 and 2014, I sang in no less than four choirs. At the time there was a severe shortage of sopranos, so there was a certain kudos attached to saying “of course I’ll help ye out!” thereby dashing from Rosscarbery to Bandon to Clonakilty and sometimes even all the way to Skibbereen each week. The main choir I was in was the Clonakilty based “Allegria”, (now renamed “Clonakilty Singers”) and way back in 2012 we performed “Jesus Christ Superstar” followed by “Chess” in 2013.

To this day the rehearsals and actual concerts were some of the best fun I ever had in my whole life. The detailed organisation which was put into the after parties indeed often rivalled the organisation which went into the actual concert performances! At the time of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Chess”, Ireland was in the depths of yet another dark recession and so for those of us who had lost our jobs, the choir became an even more important place of weekly connection. Walking round Clonakilty on a Saturday morning after a sold out “Jesus Christ Superstar” had the effect of making us all feel we had performed in Carnegie Hall!

During my time in Florence earlier this year, a kindly soul who had done some marketing for me suggested I join her local choir – at the wonderful St James Episcopalian Church which met every second Sunday. I joined them. I had never actually sung in a church choir before, so this was another steep learning curve for me. From that choir came some fledgling friendships, a sense of real connection, of feeling I belonged and mattered, no matter for how short a time
When the email from Vancouver based choir director Alison Nixon was forwarded to those of us in the St. James choir, inviting us to come sing with them for a whole week in August I was first to sign up! By the time the choir arrived I was in the throes of negotiating my lease termination in Florence as well as dealing with the neverending heatwave, compounded by of course by the infamous “Ferragosto!

Ferragosto is supposedly a one – day holiday on 15th August but in Florence it can (and does!) last for almost five weeks. Small services shut for up to four weeks and when they do reopen it is often with reduced hours for another week or so – such as – yes – my local bike shop, computer shop, printing shop, music shops, dry cleaners and art shop.
If I was stressed at the start of the choir week – go figure why!!

I had done well just to get the music of Vivaldi’s “Gloria” printed in time!

We all met on a sweltering mid – August Sunday evening where the rehearsals were further clarified, name tags were given out and under no circumstances was I allowed join them for dinner due to the inhouse restaurants’ strict policies! Which was in fact an extremely un – Italian way to act. I quietly resolved to try again the next day!

There were around 60 singers plus around another 25 non – singers which made it one of the largest choirs I had ever sung in. Rehearsals started at 9.30 am the next day for three hours with a lunch and afternoon break and a return to rehearsals from 6pm to 7pm. I had initially planned on skipping the evening rehearsals but quickly realised I really needed to be there – thereby doubling the daily cycling to and from Gavinana! However, after a summer spend largely on my sofa due to the sweltering heat, my body sorely needed this exercise.

By the end of the first rehearsal another hour of rehearsals had been added each day with various sectors taking it in turns to come in earlier – one day ‘twas the sopranos, another day ‘twas the altos and so on. Which meant, to my utter delight, that almost five hours a day were devoted to rehearsals. The first sopranos were at the very back of the room – a new experience for me and one which proved challenging enough as the days went on. We were actually the smallest group in the choir, again a first for me, but thankfully some second sopranos dropped back to help us.

Understandably, most people had a very packed “see as much of Florence between rehearsals as we can” schedule. Hell – if I was coming all the way from Vancouver, I’d have done exactly the same thing!

I was eventually able to join the group for dinner as several nights people could not make it so it was easy enough to take someone’s place which I was incredibly grateful for as to me the whole point of singing with them was to also get to know a few other members if at all possible.

First came the boiled eggs scandal!!

The second morning the choir director announced that as the previous morning 122 eggs has been cooked for breakfast but had all been eaten, therefore from then on, each member was strictly only allowed one boiled egg each!! Something which caused much hilarity – but however as eggs are a great source of protein it was perfectly possible plenty of people had eaten at least two each! Everyone was roundly chastised and told from then on to only have one boiled egg. So, the third morning out of pure devilment, I did an “egg check” to find – hilariously – at least 45 boiled eggs left over! I am not a breakfast person (I rarely eat till noon) so this entertaining diversion reminded me of the many weeks I spent in my lovely hotel in Vilamoura, whereby I would have a “breakfast” of coffee but would then calmly wrap two hard boiled eggs into a napkin to have for lunch later. I was just having my breakfast for lunch – so- where’s the harm in that I ask you?!

Then there was the “we don’t have enough wine at all at all!” scandal!

The other debate was as to the number of bottles of wine at each table. Apparently there had been mass confusion when a small number of people ate together the first night and they were given nowhere near enough wine for the numbers at the table. Some nights the food was buffet style, some nights it was on the table ready for a type of self service. However, as the nights went on, more wine was somehow produced for most tables. Which definitely lubricated many voices in preparation of the after-dinner sing songs!

The second night of joining the group for dinner I heard a hearty sing song starting at the table a few tables down once dinner was finished. Within ten minutes I recognised the Irish twang in the voice – so yes – this Canadian was in fact originally from Ireland. Not just Ireland but Dublin to boot! And in true Irish fashion, had at one stage lived less than five minutes from where I lived. Yet, somehow we managed, unusually enough for us Irish, to not know anyone in common!

After dinner many of us then moved to what was known as the “jigsaw” room from which the first of several sing song evenings transpired, all of which was great fun. The following evening was the same except when some souls started heading for bed, I was kindly invited for “just the one” pint across the road with said Irish man plus two. So over I went and we had a highly insightful sharing of personal stories as to how all three of them ended up in Vancouver. Stories the like of which you don’t hear too often these days. Then said Irishman asked if the guitar could be borrowed from its perch on the wall, to which the bemused barman replied “Certo”.

In the meantime, I was being heavily hit on by a charming Italian who immediately invited me to have coffee with him in the Florence Rowing Club the following morning. He worked there. Mamma Mia – such luck! He kept referring to as early a time as 7a.m. to which I found myself saying internally “That early??! I don’t friggin’ think so, but I sure ain’t letting you know that buster!” Said charming Italian rowing club barman took about half an hour to finally say goodbye and when we all left not long after, lo and behold, there he was in the bar across the road as we walked back to the hotel!!!

Only in Italy, as they say!

My fellow bar accomplices had no idea what a big deal it was to get an invite into what is well known to be one of the most exclusive rowing clubs in the world – as their location is practically underneath Ponte Vecchio. I had every intention on making good on the invite – but not at 7a.m. thanks! In any case, said Italian rowing club barman’s phone number was safely saved on my phone, not to be shared!

In the meantime, I had also gotten friendly with a few other lovely Canadian mums with whom I shared deeply meaningful conversations about our lives – the usual stuff – how we got to where we are now – how we juggled motherhood with full time working, how we parented our kids. It was beautiful to feel I had a safe space where I could share stories of my late daughter Ruth and I will cherish those heartfelt conversations for years.

Halfway through the week we had the bombshell dropped on us that the church we were due to sing in now had a wedding booked for the same time, so our concert was moved back to 7 p.m. Several choristers were rightly furious as many of them had friends and family due to come to Florence specially for the event. But there was nothing we could do, and anyway a 7 p.m. start at least gave everyone most of the day off. It was what it was.

Then an “official” evening group sing song was announced for the Friday evening before the concert. We could form small groups and sing a song of our choice. That was fine and dandy but then dancing got added in as well. At this stage I was starting to feel quite overwhelmed, especially as the quality of the singing from the first sopranos for the various main concert pieces could have been improved. But that was the kind of choir it was.

Everyone was welcome, something many people told me had changed their lives. Average singers became over time, much better singers. It is indeed a huge testament to the extraordinary personality and inclusiveness of Alison Nixon that the choir came together in the way it did.

This was the point at which being an astrologer really helped me! We were still in full eclipse season with the solar eclipse in Leo having just passed (Wed 12th August) and the partial lunar eclipse in Pisces just around the corner – the morning of Friday 28th August where everything choral was at its peak. As you do. The Friday was the day of the dress rehearsal in the church, along with the sing song and dancing evening straight after dinner. The restaurant the evening of the eclipse build up was the hottest it had ever been, however the view of the almost full moon that night more than made up for the sweltering heat.

About as peak as it gets eh?

Add in still blistering heat (between 37 and 40 degrees all week with some extra humidity thrown in for good measure), no air conditioning in the dining room where people basically dripped sweat over their evening meals – and you begin to get a feel for how everything simply heated up as the week wore on. And earlier in the week we had – of course – also had the sad news of the death of the musical icon Dolly Parton.

I had only ever experienced this astounding level of musical organisation and absolute inclusiveness combined with hilarious fun, when singing with Anuna in their Summer School in Dublin over a decade ago. Anuna have a unique approach to singing which can be better explained on their website – www.anuna.ie They in fact now have their summer schools abroad – often in Italy and for those interested, do get in touch with them as next year is the 40th anniversary of this stunning choir!

Thanks as always for reading my blog. Part two of the Canadian choirs’ visit will be posted next week.

END OF PART ONE