December 17, 2008

Celebrating Christmas, San Antonio style (part 2)

This past weekend (Dec. 12-13) was the annual performance of Handel's "Messiah" by the San Antonio Symphony and the Mastersingers. I actually haven't sung it in a few years, so it was fun to revisit it. We sang almost the whole thing -- 2 1/2 hours of music! The guest conductor, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, is a conductor with the Montreal-based Violons du Roy, and he was fantastic. He is young (30, maybe?) and that was fun -- he came to rehearsal in jeans, used words like "freaking out" and "ditzy" to describe musical styles, and just was more relaxed than many conductors. He brought with him the four soloists, who were all fabulous. A lot of singing this week and weekend, but worth it. It's starting to feel more like Christmas.

Of course it's so warm that we had on short sleeves when we got our Christmas tree...

And then on Sunday night we went downtown to the Little Flower Basilica for La Gran Posada - the Mexican commemoration of Mary and Joseph's journey looking for lodging on Christmas Eve. Lots of singing, a grand procession, and much pomp and circumstance (which I always love), mostly in Spanish. The evening ended with bunuelos, Mexican Christmas cookies (fried tortillas with sugar and cinnamon). Sorry I didn't get any photos (it didn't feel right in the basilica, and the fluorescent lights in the social hall made the pinata photos I took too dark).

No comments: