Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
BEFORE THE music began for 'An Evening with the University Singers' at the University Chapel, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, on Tuesday evening, it was announced that it would be soprano Raymonde Rohan's final concert before returning home.
Thirty items, one break and many minutes later there was a standing ovation from the more than seated capacity audience, a few of whom were already on their feet, as Rohan pealed her final solo on O Holy Night. And when the entire chorale had anchored the evening, put on by the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), with a medley of Christmas songs and then Auld Lang Syne, the audience once again stood en masse.
FEW YULETIDE SONGS
Extra room was made with a large screen and seating provided outside the chapel's main doors, but still some had to stand.
Although close to Christmas, the programme was not dominated by Yuletide songs, the singers opening with Sing Unto God and following with Once To Every Man and Nation. The black suit and red tie-clad men led off with 'oh redeemer divine' on Cantique de Jean Racine; the women, clad in red tops with black floral design, lifting 'oh saviour' much higher.
Up to that point, the music had been provided by a single piano, but for Alleluia, the band, congas and all, came in. The baritone of Domnick Frazer was the first solo, 'rest unto your souls' from Handel's Love Ye The Lord ringing out. Brothers in baritone Warren and Roy Thompson ended Blow Ye The Trumpet with united voices, but in contrasting physical fashions, one with arms spread wide and leaning back, the other with hands clasped and upright.
COORDINATED MOVEMENT
The eyebrows of mezzo-soprano Rochelle Brooks, the evening's first female soloist, popped up playfully as she sang 12 Gates Into The City and the choir's coordinated movement came on the Claudine Hyatt led The Lord's Prayer. It was an exaggerated side to side sway from the waist, heads canted an extra degree or two, Hyatt putting a bite into 'powah'. There was a low murmur of amusement as oomph was put into the second syllable of the final 'amen'.
Didn't The Lord Deliver Daniel, with mezzo-soprano Ellan Edwards leading, was given some swing, and there was a buzz before Rohan and Carolyn Reid stood some 15 feet apart for He's Got The Whole World. The audience's anticipation was justified and before they sang the final refrain, which ended in a skyward 'hand', the two held hands and smiled.
The applause was loud and long.
STRONG FINAL THIRD
Contralto Nickette Morgan went American South for Long As I Got King Jesus, the trap set rattling on the finger-snapping number, and the audience was invited to join in on Jamaica Land of Beauty, all standing to do so just before intermission.
The electric lights were doused and warm voices and flickering lights signalled the resumption, the singers re-entering the chapel by the main aisle with Once In Royal David's City. It was the first of 19 items in the concert's second segment, contralto Katherine Brown doing a solo for O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings of Zion and contralto Jhana Williams doing the honours for Our Father. Soprano Shawna-Gae Turner was featured on Little Town of Bethlehem, before the men's chorus ended the Echo Carol on a deepened 'name'.
Done back to back, the male dominated Carol Of The Drums and the female led Carol Of The Bells were delightful individually and even more so in contrast, the band then getting its own time with a rocking instrumental, the congas pattering out a moving beat.
It was the beginning of the programme's strong final third, the Jamaican traditional Never a Baby Like Jesus and Run Come Quick, as well as the 'yardified' The Magnificat, all arranged by Noel Dexter, keeping the feel 'down home'. And Toni-Ann Baker stood out front before four ladies and two men to bring the house down with Do You Hear What I Hear, strong applause rising for the last, long 'light'.
