For most of this past week I thought of very little besides Friday night’s Racine Symphony concert and how anxious I was to sing at the top of my game if at all possible.  But that meant staying healthy,  which in turn meant that I was hyper aware of every little sniffle.   Then as concert day approached, I started having some trouble at the other end of things, namely a belly ache and a persistent case of Big D (and I don’t mean Dysentery) which was probably due as much to my nervousness as anything.   But by concert time that irritation was over and everything else was in good working order-  which meant that what I had to do more than anything was keep my nerves in check. That’s normally not a big deal for me but this concert felt like Greg Berg Returns to Festival Hall!  since it had been so long since I’d been in this particular spotlight.  And because the RSO wasn’t using me as an emcee that night, just a soloist,  I was basically backstage with nothing to do except stew in my own juices.  (I am so much happier when I am busy.)  But fortunately for me, my colleague for the night,  soprano Becky Spice,  is a very warm and easy-going person who kept things very loose and positive in the green room. . . and by the time I took the stage,  I was ready to go and feeling fine . . . and absolutely thrilled to be back in front of the RSO, a group with which I have been associated for over two decades.

What added to the buzz of the night was that I ran into so many people in the auditorium who seemed excited that I was back,  and it made me even more anxious to hit a home run if I possibly could.  And I knew that at least one of my private voice students was in the audience, and I wanted to do well so she wouldn’t turn to her mom at the end of the night and ask “Why would I want to study voice with him?”  And maybe most significantly of all, I wanted to sing well because Kathy’s dad drove all the way from Hayward, Wisconsin that day ( a 7 hour trip ) just to be home in time for the concert.   I’m not sure I could have lived with myself if he had leaned over to Kathy at the end of Old Man River and grumbled “I left at 6 a.m. for that?!?”

Well, I’m pretty sure I made it worth his while.   And I’m pretty sure Emily is going to retain me a little longer as her voice teacher.  I really managed to sing well – everything from the soft high ending to Some Enchanted Evening to the big  climax of Old Man River.  And I would be fibbing if I said that it wasn’t really cool to be accorded a standing ovation at the end of the song –  and not one of those standing ovations where half of the people standing are  doing so because they want to stretch before heading to the lobby.  This was the real thing, and I was profoundly moved and honored-  and also fully aware that a lot of that standing ovation was really for Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein and this moving masterpiece from 1927 which still has a unique hold on audiences.

Later on, in the second half,  with our big solo stuff all behind us,  Becky and I could relax and enjoy our duets- although we created some inadvertent comedy by walking out onstage during what we thought was the applause for the end of the Star Wars Suite, only to be told that they had four more movements of music still to play.   Oops.   Keith Hampton, the general manger of the RSO,  slipped backstage a couple of minutes later and asked (I think with all sincerity)  if that little mistaken entrance was a comedic “bit” we had just thought up.   (I wish I had had the presence of mind to reply, without missing a beat,  “Sure!”  Instead I owned up to the whole thing.)   Anyway,  all went well . . .  including the encore of “I’ve Got Rhythm” which we did at the end of the evening.  (As I listened to her sing that during the first half of the concert – it was the song that came right after Old Man River – I realized that it was the perfect encore, should one be needed.  She agreed-  and so did the conductor- and somehow they managed to convey that to the members of the orchestra during intermission. . . the encore would be “I’ve got Rhythm,” beginning at measure 159.  If that message had not gotten to everyone,  we could have had garbage rather than Gershwin for the encore.)

One funny thing – – –   Shortly before the concert, I waved Kathy over to my spot backstage in order to hand off our new portable digital recorder so (Shhhhhhhhhhh) she could record my performances.  I had just finished showing it to her and explaining how it worked when up walked the conductor for the night,  Andrew Massey, to say hello.   We felt a little like two fifth graders caught in their principal’s driveway carrying two dozen eggs.  Fortunately, the little contraption looks a lot like an electric razor and I’m hoping that he thought it was nothing more than that.

One more thing for which I am grateful . . .  It was not until intermission (so I was already done singing Old Man River) that I caught sight of one of the best known voice teachers in southeastern Wisconsin,  Tony Pavao,  who was Kathy’s high school choir director.  (Polly’s as well.)   He has a voice as big as a barn and has really been around the block, musically –  and if I had known before the concert that he was in the audience,  my Big D would have been back with a vengeance.   Instead,  I only saw him in the safety of intermission.  Thank God for Good Timing!

All in all, it was a great night for me – for Becky – for the RSO – and I hope for the audience.   Judging from their applause and smiles and the lack of tomato projectiles thrown at the stage,  they were happy to be there.   So was I.   So was I.

pictured:   I love this picture, which Kathy took during the concert.  That’s the concert’s conductor just behind me, Andrew Massey.  It was really fun to sing under his baton.  By the way,  the concert also included the opening to Also Sprach Zarathustra (used as the main theme for 2001: A Space Odyssey) -the aforementioned Star Wars Suite – and a really exquisite excerpt from David Grusin’s score to “On Golden Pond,” with my friend Eric Carlsen at the piano.  Our duets included “Til there was You” from The Music Man and “Anything you can do, I can do better” from Annie Get Your Gun.  I first performed that duet when I was a sophomore in college. . .  28 years ago . . .   and it was a blast to return to it.   And darn it if Keith wasn’t right- it proved to be a fantastic way to end the concert.