St. Petersburg to Moscow (May 31 - June 14)
(Last modified: $Date: 2003/10/23 20:31:41 $)
Directed by Jim & Marcia Massey, the chorus performed several times during the 15-day trip. It began with a flight to Moscow, then an overnight train ride to St. Petersberg (with an emergency stop for dinner at the Moscow McDonalds, since they'd forgotten to include dinner!) In St. Petersberg we boarded the Russian ship MS Z. Shashkov, also known as Peter the Great. In between the three days of sightseeing in St. Petersberg we sandwiched in one evening rehearsal, but there was a lot of music even in the sightseeing. One highlight was unexpected: just before exiting the Cathedral at the Peter & Paul Fortress, we came upon 5 monks performing... spectacular acoustics and pure a cappela voices, from high counter-tenor to deep Russian bass... the purity of the sound brought tear to many eyes. At the end of the third day, we left port in St. Petersberg to begin our cruise through rivers, lake, & canals until we reached Moscow ten days later.
Yes - it was not the usual tour, moving from hotel to hotel. We returned each evening to our luxury river cruise ship for dinner, chorus rehearsal, woodshedding, socializing, and returning to sleep in cabins with windows (that opened!) which overlooked whatever river or lake we happen to be on! Of course, being on a cruise ship instead of a Russian hotel also guaranteed plenty of hot water, gourmet food, and lots of service. That way we could concentrate on the two big "S" factors: Sighteeing and Singing! It was rehearsal time each evening after the boat left port, either before or after dinner. We saw Mandrogi, Petrozavodosk, Kizhi, Irma, Uglich, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, and of course Moscow. Lake Onega, the Svir River, Lake Ladoga, the Volga-Baltic Waterway, the Neva River, the Volga River, (and Jerry Orloff even caught a fish in the Volga!) We also saw, at various times on the ship, Director Jim Massey enacting (in full costume) a Russian soldier: "When I put this helmet on, I keel everyone!" and co-director Marcia Massey (also in full costume) dancing as a (as she put it) "reeech geeepsy." It was a "pageant" put on by the ship, with the 200+ passengers providing both "actors" and audience... we were just given the costumes and told to "ad-lib" whatever was appropriate to the costume. HAH! They had NO idea what ham lurks inside the souls of most barbershop singers; best of the bunch was the "Rasputin" portrayed by bass Ted Byrne... he was so real he was scary!
And what did we sing? Bye Bye Blues, Coney Island Baby, Darkness on the Delta, Down Our Way, Home on the Range, Jingle Bells, Let There Be Peace on Earth, Moscow Nights (with the last chorus in Russian), and Nellie. Besides the show on the ship, we also did several on land. Three were especially memorable. First was our opportunity to sing Let There Be Peace on Earth in the acoustically perfect small chapel of a church in Yaroslavl (we followed a performance by a quartet of monks.) A second highlight was a 5-song mini-show on the docks next to the ship in Yaroslavl... especially when all the vendors clustered around, singing silently with us when we began Moscow Nights. They broke into big grins when we reached the last verse, which we'd learned in Russian, and they finished it with us. The third highlight was in Moscow's Red Square, when we sang Let There Be Peace on Earth. Quite an experience; twenty years ago, who would have thought that possible?
We had quite a few quartets form during the trip, who were a welcome addition to our shows. We'll end with a quote from Jim Massey, in his comments on some of the best singing memories from the trip: