Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Let It Snow  (Read 4890 times)
Sarah
Honorary Roadie
*******
Posts: 2,286


Irish at heart<3


WWW
« on: December 30, 2011, 01:53PM »

It has been forever since I have visited this forum.  I may as well drop my review here for if anyone would like to read it.
I was waiting for the first people to get the LK The Voice Newsletter before posting it here, so that is why I am quite late.

      Nothing beats the ladies of Celtic Woman singing Christmas music to you, live [For me at least! ;-)] I have been looking forward to this concert for a long time… Since the announcement was made.  When the announcement was made, I looked online and the tickets were only being sold through the Orchestra Hall site – not available to the public until August 12th.  I put my Internet skills to work and I signed up to be a new member (with no benefits) to see if I could purchase a ticket before hand.  It was July 14th, and I just purchased myself a FRONT row and CENTER seat for A Christmas Celebration Symphony tour show.  Too excited, I could barely text Destiny to sign up and grab her ticket(s). Now… to wait little over four months…  Time flies, especially when a spur of the moment decision to go to ATL for the CW Believe DVD taping…. Made waiting until December more bearable.
      Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  Snow covering the ground, crisp cool air that sends a shiver up your spine, and fogged up glasses when coming inside to a nice warm building or house…  Not this year.  This is the first BROWN Christmas that I can recall.   Barely any snow had fallen the week before the concert. Greenish grass… Blue skies.  Am I still in Minnesota?!
      I broke my phone the past Friday before the concert, so I did not remember exactly what time Destiny was going to pick me up.  All I can remember was sometime around 2:30-3:00.  I failed to remember also that she was coming from a funeral.  Poor girl.  We headed over to Sarah B’s house.  Arrived around 4PM and sat around and chatted for an hour and a half before heading out to dinner.
     Destiny recently bought a GPS.  I am not a fan of GPS’s…. We got lost. :-)  I told her a few times to just listen to me – my college is about two blocks away from The Local Irish Pub, where we were going to meet Jennifer, Laura, and Paul for dinner.  It dawned on me when we were lost that A.) It is a Friday night in Minneapolis. And, B.) It is going to be crazy busy because of clubs, bars, and rush hour.  On the way to the restaurant, we were stopped due to the Holidazzle Parade in Downtown Minneapolis.  I totally forgot that that was going on, on the weekends!
     We ended up being 30 min late to dinner.  Better late than never!  This was my first time meeting Laura and Paul; they are extremely nice couple!  Had our selves some “Wee Burger” appetizers – Sarah’s new favorite menu item to say.  I ordered mine with bacon but got them mixed up. Oh well.  Still was delish! 
     After dinner, we rushed over to the Orchestra Hall, which was about two blocks away. We arrived about fifteen minutes before Showtime.  Had just enough time to go to the merch table and get myself a program and I did splurge a tiny bit and bought a Christmas ornament.  (Not worth the money, but a great memento for this tiny tour, and Lisa Kelly’s last performance for a while).  Hanging that one on my wall.
     We then went into the auditorium.  I grabbed a booklet that they were handing out before walking down the aisle.  It shows the different performances that are going on in that month.
   
    *Click images to see full size*

   Time to head to our seats!  I follow Laura and Paul to the seats and looked back behind to see that the others were still by the entrance.  Nice seats.  We were about four feet from the stage.  I do have to say, the stage was kind of high so It kind of felt awkward to stare upwards towards the girls. 
   The orchestra starts to tune up a little. And the conductor comes on stage.  He starts conducting, the music starts and I could not for the life of me, figure out what the score was from.  Sarah nudges me and points toward the stage right doors.  Who did we see?  We saw Máiréad peeking out towards the audience.  They looked mighty exited.  I nudged Laura and she to Paul.  We all giggled.  Later, I realized, it was a suite from the movie, The Polar Express.  I haven’t seen much of the movie, but I have heard the score before.  Beautiful.  The conductor exits the stage.
   David Downes comes out from the shadows.  I hear a squeal from Sarah.  I knew he was attending when skimming through other reviews to get a gist of songs.  Plus, it is a small tour after all. :-)  He introduces us to himself, the conductor, the Minnesota Orchestra, Andy, and then the girls.  We all cheer loudly over the rest of the audience.
   Their dresses were all black and so sparkly!  I have seen photos from news articles, but they look even more amazing in person. Chloë had a gorgeous Crimson or Rose red short sleeved mini coat that went partially down her waist and a sparkly Red barrette on the left side of her hair; Máiréad had a very pretty Red accent placed diagonally from the right shoulder towards her waist; Lisa Lambe had a beautiful Red ribbon around her waist; Lisa Kelly had a thicker Red ribbon type sash around her waist.  Lisa gave me the hugest recognition when she got onto the stage.  An “It’s you!” Open-mouthed smile!  Made my night.
   There were four songs that were cut from the set list our night: “Little Drummer Boy,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “Don Oiche Ud I Mbeithil (That Night In Bethlehem),” but they added “Auld Lang Syne.” Don’t know why. Kind of made me sad and mad at the same time because I have been discussing with the twins and the only one they did not hear was “Spanish Lady,” which we didn’t get to hear either.  Another tiny disappointment to my night was that our full house audience was a dud crowd.  I am sure about 80% of them were Orchestra Hall season ticket holder members who have never seen Celtic Woman before.  We showed them how to have fun, react, applaud, standing O’s, and get the ladies to feed off that energy.  Maybe next time they see CW they will enjoy themselves more.   I did sing along to every song to make myself feel better.

Act I

   To start the night off, all of the girls sang/played “Carol of the Bells.”  I rather enjoyed the way it sounded with the whole Orchestra backing them up.  I thought o myself, “I could get used to this fast!” Their harmonization near the end, oh so amazing! You could totally see the energy they had building inside burst out.
   “Silent Night” was next. Chloë stayed on stage as both Lisa’s went through the stage doors.  As the orchestra star began to play, I got a sudden chill. Chloë was on fire!  She never ever hit a wrong note (Does she ever?!)! I heard a few people behind me gasp a little.  Made me laugh a little.  Yes, people, that is Chloë, and she CAN sing!
   After the song was over, Chloë asked us if we were enjoying ourselves. Some people clapped, some people whooped and hollered, and we, in the front row, roared! She laughed. She said, “Wow, that was the best response we’ve gotten so far on our tour!” Of course the crowds whoops and hollers get louder and louder. She then told us about the other places they have toured so far in this symphony tour, and she mentioned about how the gloomy grey skies and cold weather in Minnesota remind them the most of home. Yay, Minnesota! She also mentioned for us to sing along if we would like to since who wouldn’t know some lyrics to Christmas songs?!  They then sang “White Christmas” after a few laughs was shared.  That is what we need here, in MN… I got so many smiles from the girls.  Lisa looked a tad bit uncomfortable.  Sucking in air before she sings each time, and sometimes she would slowly pull her hand down and place it on her stomach.  I just wanted to hug her.
   Lisa Lambe’s solo was next with “Away in a Manger.”  I love her and her voice.  She fits so seamlessly into the group! Perfect!  This song showcased off her voice quite well.  She put so much force behind this song and emotion. 
   Chloë, Lisa Kelly, and Máiréad came back onto the stage, and I hear bells.  “Ding Dong Merrily On High,” eek! I love this song! I always loved singing to this song!  I don’t know why, but as I was singing along, I started laughing, and looked at Sarah and then to the girls.  Lisa Kelly and Chloë both gave a wink and as Máiréad had her solos, I was swaying back and forth which got them laughing a little.  Lisa had paid most attention to us during this song.
   It was now Máiréad’s turn to shine and get the crowd jumpin’ with “Shenandoah”/“The Butterfly” I sang along to “Shenandoah,” thanks to Hayley’s version of the song.  People start clapping, thinking it was over, (I too clapped but knew it was not fully over) and they soon fade away.  I start clapping on beat and Sarah joined along.  The front row slowly joined along but it did not catch too quickly throughout the house.  Towards the faster tempo of the song, people started to really join in.  I was hoppin’ around my seat. I was sure having a blast!
     “Christmas Pipes” was up next.  This one was absolutely stunning.  The girls swaying back and forth singing loud and strong, the orchestra backing them up, Máiréad doing her thing, I could imagine the Aontas choir singing along.  They put a few versus of “O Holy Night” in the midst of that song. It caught me off guard a little.  Not going to lie!
   Everyone left the stage except for Lisa Kelly.  I was quite excited.  Sarah nudged me, and I nudged Laura.  We were in heaven! She had told us a fun story of when she was young.  She is the oldest of three in her family, and she as always the first one to go to the tree downstairs on Christmas to see if Santa had come in the night.  She then added, “I’ll admit it… Even now, I have three kids of my own, I am always the first one downstairs on Christmas morning.” Ha! I love your humor, Lisa!  She then commented a little about the song she was going to sing, “The Christmas Song.”  This song has been one of my favorite Christmas songs (besides “Little Drummer Boy,” that they did not sing during this show.).  One of my absolute favorite Christmas songs, Lisa Kelly singing it to me, live? It hit me. My idol was singing one of my favorite Christmas songs in a lovely venue in my home state? It felt so unreal to me!  I sang along until that moment hit. Tears filled my eyes.  It was so perfect.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way!  I am pretty sure she noticed me, holding my arm to my heart.  I saw her nod and smile towards me at the very end of her song before walking away.
   Lisa Lambe walked out onto the stage and said to the crowd, “In case you did not know, we Irish love to sing.” *tons of cheering from our group in the front row*  “This next song is not necessarily a Christmas song, but it is one that we love to do.  This is the gorgeous, ‘Danny Boy.’”  While she was talking to us, some stagehands set up a few stools in the middle of the stage.  They sat and started singing.  Such a beautiful song sung by such beautiful women! No brainer, that song deserved a standing ovation!
   Now it was the full version of “O Holy Night.”  I loved it.  Those girls together are so magical.  They really compliment each other in their harmonization.  I sung my heart out to this one, and received plenty of smiles from all of the girls.

Intermission

   We all get up to stretch our legs out and some hit the ladies room.  I hear a voice in the distance, “I thought I recognized you guys standing up!  How did you guys get front row seats?!”  It was Mike, the nice gentleman that we all met at the State Theatre earlier this year.  He was wearing a green striped polo that had a green Irish Rugby logo on it.  He was very proud of finding that shirt.   We all shared hugs and chatted a good long time.  He said that he was on stage right, 7th row and saw a group of people doing standing ovations and realized it truly was us.  We had an extra seat available next to Paul so Mike gladly took that seat.  He was looking for us before the show, knowing that we would not miss this show for the world.  He was right! Dang our lateness…. Smiley As I just skimmed through Sarah’s review, she wrote, “Destiny turned to me right before the first act started and said ‘We’re the youngest ones in the front row.’”  True fans, right there!  Right before the second act, I asked Laura if she had any tissues (just in case).  She leans over and grabs some toilet paper she had grabbed while visiting the ladies room. We both had a laugh.  It worked for me; it was something to clear the happy tears away.
Logged

<3Sarah<3
<I FINALLY got to meet THE Lisa Kelly and Mairead Nesbitt at my very first M&G!>



AY made these lovely banners for me Smiley TY AY!
Sarah
Honorary Roadie
*******
Posts: 2,286


Irish at heart<3


WWW
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2011, 01:54PM »

Act II

   The Orchestra tuned up again, and then started to play, “Sleigh Ride.” Best the orchestra has done yet!   Why, you say? I shall tell you why.  There is a man who uses a whip for the cracking noise you would hear to make a horse trot/cater faster.  This is heard throughout the song about five times maybe?  Well, on the second whip cracking noise, he misses and the audience starts laughing.  I was not looking at the time so I had to ask the others what was going on.  He then tries again a few more times and people applaud.  He walks up towards the front of the stage, holds the whip in his hands, bends over a tiny bit, and…. *Snap!* The crowd goes wild!  At the very end of the song, the conductor bows and pulls a hand out to the whip-cracking guy. Many standing O’s, whoops, hollers, and whistling noises go through the air.
     “In the Bleak Midwinter” Máiréad comes out on stage and does her thing.  She was fantastic! She always is! Swaying back and forth, so much emotion and energy put into her music.  She went back and forth through the entire stage and had many eye contacting moments with many of the audience.  It is her “Fierce” look. I love it!  As soon as she was finished, they went straight into the next song with a smooth transition, “The First Noel.” All of the ladies came on stage, one by one when it was their time to sing. They would walk over to David, by the piano, and then walk to the middle of the stage.  So sweet!  Their harmonized voices! Also, lots of smiles from the girls, but Lisa Kelly paid almost full attention towards our group.  I was a happy camper!  I could tell that she was feeling a bit better in this second act of the show.
     Lisa stayed on stage as everyone went towards the stage doors.  I was getting super excited! It was time for, “Green the Whole Year Round!”  At the end of this song, Sarah, Laura, and I were planning on shouting out, “We love you, Lisa!” when she was to take her bow.  She began talking to us. I am going to steal a few quotes from Sarah’s review that Lisa had said to us (I sometimes am bad at remembering whole quotes). “So, have you guys been singing along with us tonight?” We all cheer, and the rest of the crowd claps and whoops a little.  She smiled and said, “Good, so your vocal chords are all warmed up?  Because I need your help on this song.”  Then explained about when they first recorded A.C.C., David had written a song for herself to sing.  We all cheered loudly. She stopped, looked right at our group of seven, and said, “Oh, you guys know this song... That’s good!” Ha! Of course, Lisa! It is such a beautiful song, at that!  As we all know, she had choir members backing her up in the DVD/CD.  She said that she tried to convince our MN Orchestra to sing as they played, but it was a no go. LOL!  “If I teach you the words, would you sing with me?”  Of course! Sarah, Laura, and I started cheering wildly.  As she was teaching the rest of the audience the words, I sang along. No humming, I sung!  She glanced over and smiled as she was singing the verse to the audience the way it should be done.  She made one final comment for the audience before they started the song.  “Now, at the end of the song, there is a key change; it goes up a half step.  And, if you don’t make the key change with me, it will sound horrible.  So, make sure you watch out for it and pay attention!”  She got a few laughs out of that from the audience.  It sounded beautiful!  I sang along the whole time, singing loud and proud, as she would glance over and smile.  When the key change was about to happen, she held up her pointer finger to remind the crowd.  Key change was made successfully!  She did stop singing at once point to hear if the audience was truly singing along; they/we were!  We stood up for a well deserved Standing O’, and tried to shout out, “We love you, Lisa.”  I guess she did not hear us… we weren’t loud enough.  As we were sitting back down, we hear another, “We love you, Lisa!”  It was Mike! It made us, and some of the other audience chuckle!   Lisa definitely missed that one… she was already through the doors.
     Time for Máiréad’s real shining moment. “Granuaile’s Dance.” This is my absolute favorite solo of Máiréad’s.  I heard so many gasps from the people around me and made me laugh.  She used that stage like no other!  Up, down, hop, skip, twirl, “Fierce” stares, oh Máiréad, You are incredible!  Many smiles from her, and she definitely recognized me. It was awesome!  I looked down towards my right because I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye.  Mike was swaying back and forth really fast and pretending to play the fiddle. It made me laugh.  I had to nudge Sarah and let her know.  Too funny, Mike!
Lisa Lambe stepped onto the stage.  Instead of singing, “Don Oiche Ud I Mbeithil (That Night In Bethlehem)”, she sang “Auld Lang Syne.”   She explained it as an Scottish song that revolves around friendship and usually is sung by a group of people.  She also said for us to cross over our arms and hold each other’s hand and sway back and forth.  We did just that! (I cannot say the other audience members did the same).  She looked down at us, when she had a break from singing and she had a huge smile on her face because we did what was asked of us.  We were having so much fun!
     “Ave Maria.” I knew Chloë would use the new version she had performed in Atlanta for the Believe performance.  It was so powerful!  I had goose bumps on my arms, and not going to lie, I have goose bumps now!  Gasps were heard from the audience.  It was so great! I even heard Sarah gasp a little!  I swear I could hear the children from the Gwinnett Young Singers! It as incredible! Many smiles and nods towards us.
     The girls came back on stage.  I knew it was getting close to the end… Made me feel sad. All the girls looked towards us at one point and had a smile moment with us.  Felt so special!  Máiréad started speaking.  I wasn’t paying attention because the very last person to look at and get acknowledged was Lisa Kelly.  Went into my own world.  I guess Máiréad had asked the audience, “We’re nearing the end of our show, and we will now take requests.” I heard the “requests” part, and I was trying to think of any song that comes to mind.  I had nothing for once! Could not think of anything! I did see Lisa Kelly shake her head as she looked towards Máiréad.  That made me laugh. Fail… “We’ll perform your requests, as long as it’s already the song we were going to sing next.”  Lot of laughter is heard.  She continued, “This is a song that has been very close to our hearts since the beginning of Celtic Woman.”  Our group cheered so loud! Twas time for, “You Raise Me Up!” When Máiréad started the song off, I feel my hand being grasped by Laura.  I then grabbed Sarah’s hand and squeezed a little to each of them.  Friends.  I have some great friends!  I sang to Sarah and Laura and back to the ladies in front of us.  They seemed to notice.  Of course, Lisa Kelly was the one to thank the audience.  I love that is her every time!  Got some definite smiles from each of them throughout the song.  A few times throughout the song, Sarah had put her head on my shoulder.  I sang to her.  It was such a serene moment.   There is no doubt that this song deserved a standing ovation.  Blew a kiss to the girls, got smiles back!
    “O Come All Ye Faithful” was second to last.  I rather like this song.  Such beautiful voices being showcased off though this song.  Harmonies, solos, beautiful!  As I stood up for the standing ovation, I blew a kiss to the girls once more, received more smiles form the ladies, and Chloë… Chloë blew a kiss straight back to me! Made my night, no doubt! They bowed many times. Brought David to the front of the stage, the conductor, and orchestra stood up.  The girls ran off stage.
      Not even fifteen seconds later, they came bouncing on stage again.  I think it was Chloë who said, “We’re gonna’ do one more for you!”  She continues, “We want you to be Irish with us for this song…” No hesitation, they started singing, “Let It Snow.”  I was expecting everyone to keep standing. Nope… I took a quick glance and saw people beginning to sit.  So our group then sat.  I really wanted to stand up for their last song, but I did not want to be alone! Lol!  They definitely had energy built up for this one.  They all were so bubbly, leaning on each other, holding hands, twirling each other, and being somewhat seductive. Lol!  As the orchestra played their solo part, the girls went separate ways on stage.  I watched Lisa Kelly walk towards David, and sit on his piano bench.  I laughed.  Sarah looked at Laura and I for confirmation that we had seen Lisa with David.  It is so cute to see them go separate ways and “Flirt” with whom they are sitting/standing with, like they do for the Céili songs! Oh, BTW, when Lisa Kelly sung the lyrics, “And, my dear, we're still good-bye-ing,” we all heard Chloë faintly say, “You tell ‘em Lis’!” Our group all roared like mad cows! (They laughed) and the other audience members were, I am sure, confused. Lol!  Thank you, David for putting that back into the song for our enjoyment!  I love upbeat songs.  I like to move to the beat of the music.  So, Sarah, Laura and I were swaying back and forth to the music.  The girls noticed us and looked quite pleased that we were enjoying our time!  Few smiles were shared, kisses were blown, the girls, David, the conductor, and Andy took their bows, and tons of waves goodbye! And then… The show was over! :-(
     We stayed by the stage and I asked the nice security guard (who was standing about eight feet from us) if he could take some photos of us.  He used my cell phone first.  Decent shots made.  He then tried my camera.  No flash. I ran to him to fix that problem.  Jennifer had a camera too; hers died.  Someone else had a camera; so a few more were taken.

 

       We headed out of the auditorium and a man looked at me and asked, “How did you manage to grab those great seats?”  I guess he recognized me from all my standing O’s throughout the night. Lol!  Told him our story and went separate ways. 
     As we were leaving the Orchestra Hall building, we decided to go for a slight walk around the building.  We all notice that it had started to snow!  Some large flakes, if I do recall correctly!  The ladies had done it!  All we needed was for them to sing, “Let It Snow” and it will snow for us!  I told the group, “I wonder how long the snow will last on the ground.”  Not long… Two days later, we had 45º weather, ha! Definitely not normal December weather for Minnesota…. Not at all…
       We did happen to bump into David Downes, and Andy.  I got both of their signatures on my program cover.  Thank goodness for my smart thinking of bringing a black and a silver sharpie, just in case this type situation happened.  I also got a photo taken with David as well, to make up for one that was taken at Believe, where his eyes were shut.  I am getting good at not being nervous around many people anymore.  I am sure if we had seen the girls, it would be another story…

 

     I think the show was great.  Saddened that they cut a lot of songs out of our show, but nothing we can do about it! At least I got to hear and see the ladies one last time this year!  I am glad the ladies had such a great time feeding off our group’s energy.  I just feel bad that the rest of the audience was such a dud.  Party poopers! :-P  Thank you, Ladies for a fabulous night, Thank you David for being the pianist! Thank you also to Andy, the conductor, and the Minnesota Orchestra, and my dear friends I got to spend the evening with.  You all are great! Hopefully I can attend Believe next year with you all!
      I want to especially thank Mrs. Lisa Kelly Porter!  You looked mighty uncomfortable during the first half but pulled it together the second half.  You looked amazingly beautiful throughout the night (when are you ever not!?).  The way you held your hand against the baby inside of you, your smiles, just you… Thank you!  I cannot wait until we see each other again! You will be missed by so many this next tour year - especially by me, and my dear friends of mine. Take care of yourself.  We love you!
Logged

<3Sarah<3
<I FINALLY got to meet THE Lisa Kelly and Mairead Nesbitt at my very first M&G!>



AY made these lovely banners for me Smiley TY AY!
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to: