Sunday, May 15th Shanghai Grand Theater
Sunday morning the percussionists, harpists, bassists, and staff headed early to lunch and then to the Shanghai Grand Theatre to unpack for the rehearsal and concert. We had a Chinese/Western buffet. Some of the western dishes were Pizza, Chicken Popcorn, Fresh Fries, Skewed Chicken, and Corn Cob. We had to eat quickly and then get to the theatre to set up.
Walking into back stage of the theatre was like a maze. There were so many different halls and doors it was easy to get lost. Plus, all the directions were in Chinese, or badly translated English. So, if you got lost it was pretty hard to figure out how to get back. Upon walking into the hall we were all pleasantly surprised and in speechless awe. It was so beautiful, spacious, and comfortable compared to the past halls and even many back in the States. It seated about 1600 people, the stage was large, and backstage was huge. We had plenty of room on stage for all our instruments, even though there was a choir stage still set up on the back part of the floor. We were able to line all our gear cases up in two long lines backstage and still have plenty of room to load and unload without having to maneuver to walk through.
Unpacking didn’t take as long as we thought, so Carla and I took naps on our harp covers. We set them on the ground with our packing pillows and rested; it was quite comfortable. We then had a 2 hour rehearsal and another break before dinner. Dinner consisted of a fried chicken sandwich from KFC. We have been having a lot of western food lately. It’s a nice change to eat back-home food, but the quality is low and I did enjoy having completely authentic Chinese food regularly.We had another break after dinner, so I practiced some, tuned, and rested on the harp covers.
The concert started at 7:15 with no speeches or pre-concert performers. We played Shostakovich first and got a strong applause and loud cheers. Next we played “Shanghai Overture.” We thought for sure the Chinese would recognize the traditional tunes and love the piece, but we just got applause upon finishing. Then we did Bach Toccata and Fugue and Daugherty Lost Vegas and with the same reaction. We then had intermission and continued with Chen Yi. The concert was going great and we were a little surprised by the steady decline of interest. But then Xian Gou walked on and the hall immediately erupted with cheers and applause. We performed the Kuster “Two Jades” and were demanded an encore. They again erupted after Meditation, but we continued with the program. Star Wars was also a major favorite. It was clear they had quickly gotten revved up and wanted more music. We played a march and then Xian Gou came on for another encore which they completely loved. Prof. Haithcock asked the audience for all U of M alumni to shout “GO BLUE.” Most of the audience did and we proceeded with “Victors Valiant.” They didn’t chant or clap while we performed, but they again erupted when we finished the last note. We had one more encore planned and proceeded to play it, Stars and Stripes Forever. They did clap for this one during the performance and we received our loudest cheer. But it had already been more than 2 hours and thankfully they didn’t press for another encore.
Before the concert, we had heard more than 95% of the tickets had sold. We were curious how many of those would be Americans. We weren’t surprised to see that most were Asians, but there were still a good many Americans and it was kind of weird to walk through the lobby and hear people other than our group speech English. The concert was over around 9:30 and we were able to strike the stage and get everything packed onto the truck a little after 10:00. This was our quickest pack up so far and I think we have the hang of it. Packing up consists of 8 wardrobe boxes, over 1700 pieces of music and other random stage stuff put into trunks, 2 harps, 2 basses, and over 100 pieces of percussion also needing to go into trunks. Then all of this must be puzzle-pieced into a truck, definitely a challenge, but one that we have mastered.
We returned to the hotel by 10:30 and had the rest of the evening to pack and rest for our travel day to Xian and the Terracotta Warriors!
Comments