WAIHEKE CHORAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER DEC.2006


Hi Every one,

Well whoever thought that we would reach the end of the year in one piece, and sane. We have been particularly busy over the last few months. Iolanthe rehearsals taking up quite a bit of time, but the end result was worth it. Principals were meeting away from the chorus as well as attending regular rehearsals, so they were all putting in a tremendous amount of extra work. Richard was also working with Acappella with their Christmas concert .Of course all shows rely on people both behind the scenes as well as in front and we had some good ones .Robert had everything under control and kept his good humour throughout even through some rather creaky rehearsals. .Gilbert would have been very pleased with Brenda’s update and references to things Waiheke. It is amazing how the antics of businessmen/MPs haven’t changed over a hundred years. A lot of hard work was done by members who were not on the committee. Now committee members are not ‘know it alls’ and the fact that these people came forward and helped tremendously, says a lot about our choir. Colin and Jack liased brilliantly with the programmes and publicity, Colin also made some of the props, such as the Global/Exxon sign. The programme was sponsored by Harveys Realty, and where would we be without Meya’s great interpretation of movement and dance and also the make-up for the fairies. Anne Sutton was the best wardrobe mistress ever and I don’t think she left one op-shop un-sussed. The Thyso family were all involved with the prompt and filming with Micheal in the chorus ,also standing in when a principal was away. The orchestra under Richard gave a greater depth to the whole show and many thanks to Ann Willmann and Margaret Lange for playing the pianos ,Luciana Pelosi, flute, Willi Willmann clarinet ,Miriam Croucher bassoon, Susan Adams, cello and Wendy Donald bass. All of these people were volunteers. The committee were also very busy with the other things that needed doing. Unfortunately, we didn’t have full houses and ticket sales were well down, which meant that the show made a loss, but the cast enjoyed the show and hopefully so did the audience. Our thanks to the other people who rendered their services at a small cost. The set was built by Bernard Rhodes. We had professional lighting and rigging, fairy wings and coronets by Sheryl Lyall and make-up for the principals by Jane Rushton. I have probably missed out some people who did their bit, but there is a huge pool of talent within the choir and the committee thank you for your contribution to Iolanthe. I especially want to thank all the people who turned up Sunday morning to clean out the theatre, we had it sparkling clean and not a trace of fairy dandruff to be seen anywhere. We had it all done in two hours, then we had lunch outside with the leftovers from the cast party. All done and dusted.

We are all looking forward to the Christmas concert by Acappella choir on Saturday December 2nd. At St. Peters Church Oneroa at 7.30pm. Then our choirs end of year bash at the Golf Club. Tuesday December 5th. Please bring a small nonsense gift for Santa to give out Partners are welcome. George Hudson has donated some of his famous wine to the choir to be enjoyed at our leisure.

Choir returns on February13th 2007 at 7.30pm., at Palm Beach.

Birthday greetings for December go to Richard Melville, Kit Nelson and Margaret Karetai, and to anyone else who has a special day this month. It just leaves me to wish everyone the Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays and we’ll see you all in the New Year

Jeanne Mellamphy

This newsletter has been generously sponsored by Harveys Park City Realty MREINZ

Phone 3725276