Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus
On Thursday, November 18th, Pat received this email from a friend, fellow quilter and chorister, Joan:
"Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE
To hear my Chorus (Chorus Niagara) surprise a crowd of shoppers last weekend! It was fun watching the reactions of unsuspecting innocent bystanders! I can see by the video that some people who were not choristers also joined in!
Joan"
Now, we ignore many emails that invite us to check out this or that website or video.
Life is short and our 'to-do lists' are long.
And experience has taught us that such invitations often lead to porn, a spam message about how to increase breast or penis size, or---worse---to a virus.
But since Joan is her friend, Pat clicked on the link. She watched for a few moments and then shouted, "This is amazing, You've got to see this!"
I went over and watched.
It was amazing.
When we first watched the video, there had been 350 viewings. Within a day the viewings were in the thousands, a week later the viewings were 1.2 million and as I upload this posting the total is over 2.1 million---all of that in 10 days!
This posting is going to be about that YouTube video. May I respectfully suggest that if you haven't already watched the video (4 minutes and 57 seconds) you click on the link above, in Joan's email?
And then come back.
Please don't forget to come back!
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If you are wondering how the video came to be made, I recommend this article in the Welland Tribune. It explains why the opening singer has a cell phone to her ear throughout the video, and who the 'janitor' in the coveralls waving a 'Wet Floor' sign actually is.
I hope the Tribune won't mind if I reprint a couple of excerpts.
The next, the St. Catharines native was standing and belting out "hallelujahs" from the famed chorus in Handel's Messiah in front of a stunned food court congregation.
"The first reaction was jaw-dropping surprise and people laughing," said the startling soprano, who broke into song around noon last Saturday at the Welland mall. "Then just about everyone whipped out their phone cameras at once." "
And the article concludes with this quote from Ms. Tritchew about the reaction of a family sitting right in front of her.
"'They had these two little kids with big eyes and one of them said, 'Mom, this is so cool,'" recalled Tritchew. "I just loved it. I loved that we really seemed to lift people's spirits like that."
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There have been hundreds and hundreds of comments on the video. Here is one of my favourites, from a woman named Martine in France---my translation follows:
Fantastique, fabuleux, extraordinaire, merveilleux!.
L'Art près de chez nous!.
Sans cérémonie, costumes et noeuds papillons, robes de soirée ni rivières de diamants!.
Une simple mais exceptionnelle présence et pas uniquement auditive!.
Celle du coeur (du choeur!) tout simplement!!!......
A thousand thank-you's for these amazing moments of pure happiness!
Fantastic, fabulous, extraordinary, marvellous!
Art brought to where we live!
Without ceremony, no suits with bow-ties, no silk dresses, no sparkling jewellery!
A simple but exceptional performance and not just for the ears!
A performance straight from the heart!!!
(The original has a clever play on words in the last line involving 'coeur'---'heart'---and 'choeur'---'choir'--- that I haven't been able to translate into English.)
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I also liked a comment in which the writer proposed that the Niagara Chorus create another flash mob experience, this time using Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
If that happens, perhaps Pat could persuade Joan to give us a 'heads up' so that we could join the mall crowd.
To quote the little boy, that would be 'so cool'.
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See you on December 5th for Posting #98 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.
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