Aubrie week (My Sacred Life, Sunday)

Beginning Friday night and continuing through this coming Friday (technically eight days, so we can term it a "mega-week"), my eldest has more performances than I can count, and certainly more than I can attend.

These range from her vocal jazz performance with sometimes four, sometimes five fellow vocalists, to a massed-choir and orchestra performance of the Haydn mass in Bb.

Today, I offer my lame videos of a marvelous performance: Into the Woods, the Sondheim musical which premiered on Broadway more than twenty years ago. What I want you to hear is the power of those excellent voices all in cohort in the second video. The small hall where this performance was enacted was filled to every last nook with this wave of voice-in-harmony that these talented young people provided.

First, though, my daughter as Cinderella, sings to Red Riding Hood (if you don't know the story, it is a mash-up of half a dozen different fairy tales to entertaining result) in the most-touching song from the musical, No One is Alone. This is only a one-minute snippet.

Mother cannot guide you.
Now you're on your own.
Only me beside you.
Still, you're not alone.
No one is alone. Truly.
No one is alone.
Sometimes people leave you.
Halfway through the wood.
Others may deceive you.
You decide whats good.
You decide alone.
But no one is alone.

Little Red Riding Hood: I wish..

Cinderella: I know.

Next is the finale of the show, this clip about two minutes in length. The most important fact for me is that, just as has been the case for many years, the Hamrick woman gets the last word (or vocal phrase, in this case). That's Aubrie at the very end, singing, "I wish!" even as the audience is already beginning to applaud. Again, lyrics included below the video.

Company: Careful the wish you make,
Wishes are children.
Careful the path they take,
Wishes come true,
Not free.
Careful the spell you cast,
Not just on children.
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you...
Witch: Careful the tale you tell.
That is the spell.
Children will listen..
Company [in three groups: round]: Though it's fearful,
Though it's deep, though it's dark
And though you may lose the path,
Though you may encounter wolves,
You can't just act,
You have to listen.
you can't just act,
You have to think.
Though it's dark,
There are always wolves,
There are always spells,
There are always beans,
Or a giant dwells there.
[unison]
So into the woods you go again,
You have to every now and then.
Into the woods, no telling when,
Be ready for the journey.
Into the woods, but not too fast
or what you wish, you lose at last.
Into the woods, but mind the past.
Into the woods, but mind the future.
Into the woods, but not to stray,
Or tempt the wolf, or steal from the giant--
The way is dark,
The light is dim,
But now there's you, me, her, and him.
The chances look small,
The choices look grim,
But everything you learn there
Will help when you return there.
Baker, Jack, Cinderella, LRRH: The light is getting dimmer..
Baker: I think I see a glimmer--
All: Into the woods--you have to grope,
But that's the way you learn to cope.
Into the woods to find there's hope
Of getting through the journey.
Into the woods, each time you go,
There's more to learn of what you know.
Into the woods, but not too slow--
Into the woods, it's nearing midnight--
Into the woods to mind the wolf,
To heed the witch, to honor the giant,
To mind, to heed, to find, to think, to teach, to join,
To go to the Festival!
Into the woods,
Into the woods,
Into the woods,
Then out of the woods--
And happy ever after!
Cinderella: I wish...