It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Not only are the garden burgeoning and things taking off again at la chapelle de Teysseroles, which we are helping to restore, but le choeur de Parisot has started its spring season in earnest.
Last Friday evening, our choir performed at Limogne, a small town on top of the limestone causse, not far over the border between the Lot and Tarn-et-Garonne départements. It has a good Sunday morning market.
Our choir was inaugurated in February 2012 and this was only our second proper gig away from our home territory. The first was the carol service at Cajarc (Lot) last December.
Le choeur de Parisot is now more than 50 strong and has French, British, Dutch, Belgian and Swedish (the SF) members – plus a few I’ve probably forgotten. We shared last Friday’s billing with a small choir of a dozen voices, called – appropriately – Voices. They sang a programme of modern songs. Our programme was more traditional, ranging from Thomas Tallis up to Jacques Brel. It was very gratifying to see the church full – around 250 people were in the audience.
Before the concert, the choir shared an auberge espagnole (everyone brings a dish) in the salle des fêtes near the church.
One of the highlights – naturally – was the SF singing a solo: a negro spiritual called ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I See’. His rich baritone voice is perfectly suited to the demands of the piece. For obvious reasons, I was unable to take photos during the concert so the one below is courtesy of friends who were there.
Our conductor Peter Nowfel has been keeping our noses to the grindstone for the past few weeks (swine – it’s okay; private joke). Rightly so, since we usually fall far short of perfection in rehearsals, despite his efforts. Fortunately, in performances we seem to go the extra mile, fuelled by adrenalin. Alas, only Peter’s back view is destined to be recorded for posterity (see above).
Our next effort will be on our home territory in l’église Saint-Andéol at Parisot this coming Saturday (20th April) at 20h30. If you’re in the area you will be most welcome. But get there early for a chance of getting a decent seat. Modesty forbids me to say that we pull in the crowds but we do seem to have a very faithful local following, for which we are really grateful.
Our next concerts will be as follows:
- Saturday 15th June – Eglise de Ginals (venue and time TBA)
- Sunday 30th June – Eglise Saint-Andéol at Parisot (time TBA).
Venez nombreux, as they say.
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Life on La Lune 
My husband and I went to hear the Choeur de Parisot at the Eglise St Andeol in Parisot on Saturday night. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening. You all have amazing voices.
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I’m pleased you enjoyed it. We have some very good singers in the choir (I don’t include myself). Some of the basses, especially, have strong and resonant voices. BTW, it was my husband who sang the solo in the spiritual.
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Oh, and i’ve sat in that very cafe in Limogne. Lovely sunday market, I agree (though you do have to order your ‘poulet roti’ in advance). Sorry you weren’t performing when I was there!
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We like the market and the cafe at Limogne on a Sunday morning. They also have a lovely, small truffle market every Friday in season, which I’ve blogged about. It’s always nice to do a gig off our home territory (even if not very far away) and we were very gratified to see the church at Limogne pretty much full.
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Wish I could sing. It’s clear that you all get much pleasure from your choir activities and the SF’s spiritual must have been extraordinary with church accoustics (spelling?)
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We do enjoy it and the acoustics were pretty good at Limogne last week, although I think those at our home church in Parisot are just as good. Second concert tomorrow on our home territory, so now psyching ourselves up for it.
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I know the song Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen but I was unaware it was a negro spiritual. Just did some research–unsurprisingly it’s a song that appeared sometime during the 19th century in the US and was sung by slaves. The title definitely makes sense.
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Thanks for looking up the background – I suspected those were its origins. The version we sing is “Nobody knows the trouble I see”, since that’s the score we have. But I must say I prefer “I’ve seen.”
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