Concert: Spirit of Christmas

Friday evening I ventured to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre to see their Christmas concert Spirit of Christmas... It features a cast of thousands... Well at least the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and four local choirs along with local celebrities and a reverend (to remind everyone about Jesus). Ten years ago I last performed in one of the choirs so I was keen to see what had changed. Well QPAC is obviously keeping up with tradition (and being frugal) as very little of the show had changed. In fact I could have got up and sung along with them as I knew most of the arrangements. One new addition was an African Noel that had the giant massed choir moving and swaying... I was surprised to see that many of the old timers still could move it. They could teach the LGMC a thing or two... It was a pity there wasn't more of the choirs given I understand they had them practicing every night of the week just for three songs and bit of colour behind the singalong carols...

Highlight of the evening however was when singer / host / minor celebPeter Cousens asked a young boy on stage if he could go back and sit with his father, to which he replied he didn't have one. This was met with howls of laughter from the audience. We were a cruel lot. I gather that for the Saturday shows he was a little more careful with his words lest any more orphans came up on stage to sing Christmas carols. I hope they managed to fix the sound as well as the "QPAC amplification" sounded like everything had a pillow over it... The strings weren't that bad surely that they needed to be muffled? Still it was an enjoyable enough concert...

It was the first time I had seen the venue since its renovation, and one can only wait another twenty five years for the return of the coral coloured seats. Ok sure they were relics of the eighties, but so is this building and horses for courses. The brighter scheme didn't work for me (and it didn't seem to work for the lighting guys who weren't particularly adept with the LED lighting moods). The foyers with their chocolate carpets and steel mesh bits already are embarrassment and hardly an improvement for congestion either...

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