I’m quite proud to say that the Toronto Star is featuring an article about our (Pax Christi Chorale) Christmas show. Their take on it is linked to the current refugee crisis. The story of L’Enfant du Christ, is about the holy family looking for shelter in a foreign land. People looking for a place to feel safe from persecution. One would think that this piece was programmed specifically for this time. This work may be from 1854, but it is still poignant, and in its way current. Plus we have AMAZING soloists, an amazing orchestra and our chorus…. This will be so good.
Sometimes, when our regular troops are not available, we need to call on those people who will always be there in a pinch. Which is why this week we welcomed Lynn, for Monday night. Lynn is working with the Havergal college senior choir, who will be joining us in our concert. But this week Steph called on Lynn to lead the ladys in sectional rehearsals, to help in preparation for next weekend’s concert.
This week’s menu underwent some pretty significant changes, along the way. Issues like not enough time to prep, to not able to find the ingredients, we had to be flexible. Then again, Shawn has a few tricks up his sleeve. …
For tonight, we started with greeting by “the mighty Enzo” and moved on to Gnocchi gratin with gorgonzola dolce.
The ricotta gnocchi, with the gorgonzola dolce sauce, just seems right. It was surprising that the gnocchi absorbed much of the sauce, but the cheesy, creamy goodness came through.
For our main, we served Pepper steak with tomatoes provencale and sautéed spinach.
The steak accompanied with the luxurious sauce and mushrooms was so nice, but the stuffed tomato was the star for me, and just look at those colours.
Dessert was very rich, even for us. When you combine 3 kinds of chocolate, whipping cream, half and half, and whole milk, what do you get??? Dark chocolate terrine, glazed with semi-sweet chocolate, with 2 chocolate sauces.
This is a very interesting dish. Such simple ingredients, but using chocolate in different ways is kind of cool. A dark chocolate mousse, that is frozen as a semi-freddo, with a firm chocolate glaze and chocolate sauces. It just shows how you can take the same basic ingredients and with different techniques, create something interesting. Steph brought us a bottle of Southgate Framboise. You could do worse than chocolate and Framboise….
It was nice to welcome a new friend to Monday Night Dining. Especially someone with such an interesting insight into the piece we are rehearsing and about working with choirs. Lovely to have that refreshing view. Writing this entry, after the rehearsal, I have to say that Steph worked the men hard… And that is exactly what I needed. This has given me the confidence to get up there and not only sing, but perform a beautiful piece of music. I also heard good things about the lady’s rehearsal with Lynn. I don’t think she pulled any punches either. When all is said and done, it gives us the confidence to move on to a new treatment of Berlioz’s L’Enfant du Christ. For this show, we not only have singers and a brilliant orchestra, but much more fluidity and movement than our previous shows, we also have dancers. This is really going to be something unique. You should come….
‘Twas so great to have the fabulous Lynn Janes with us at dinner, and then to put the Pax Christi women’s voices through their paces. I can’t count the number of soprano and alto who praised her work with them. Now on to the final rehearsals of Berlioz’s “L’Enfance du Christ!”