Eltham in Italy
Eltham Choral Society, Eltham's leading choir and known to its members and supporters alike simply as ECS, have just returned from a very successful concert trip to Montecatini Terme in Tuscany. The 4-day trip was part of the choir's official celebrations to mark one hundred years since the first known concert by ECS in 1908, when they gave a performance of Haydn's great oratorio, The Creation.

The trip to Montecatini Terme was one of a regular series of concert tours by ECS to continental Europe, which began in the millennium year of 2000 with a trip to Chartres in France, following a previous trip to the north of the Netherlands back in 1995 as guests of the Groningen Mozart Ensemble. ECS has since spread the name of Eltham to Bruges in 2002, Amsterdam in 2004 and, more ambitiously, Catalonia in 2006, where we gave recitals in both Girona and Barcelona cathedrals. In this year's trip to Italy, ECS performed in the Basilica in Montecatini Terme, a popular Tuscan spa resort, and in a major church in the heart of Florence.

The trip started in the small hours of Thursday morning in Roper Street. It wasn't meant to, but the coach taking the choir party to Gatwick Airport turned into Roper Street by mistake and couldn't get back out because it had lost reverse gear. Such is the camaraderie of the members of ECS that they turned to as a man, or the men did, and pushed the coach back into the High Street.

Having arrived in a rainy, but warm, Montecatini, after an otherwise uneventful journey, the group settled into its hotel and generally relaxed for the rest of the day over some friendly conversation and the odd glass of Chianti.

Friday dawned to a downpour, but, undaunted, the group went to Florence for a day of sightseeing before rehearsing in the Chiesa Santa Maria dei Ricci and giving its first concert on Italian soil. Despite the continuing wet conditions (a case not so much of 'singing in the rain' as singing to get out of the rain), the concert attracted a good audience who rewarded the performance of a programme of mainly sacred music by British and Italian composers ranging from Thomas Tallis and Claudio Monteverdi from the 16th century to Edward Elgar and Giuseppi Verdi from the 19th/20th century with enthusiastic applause. The highlight of the concert for us, though, was the European premiere of a work by Bob Chilcott based on Aesop's Fables, which ECS commissioned from him to mark its centenary year. This was received very enthusiastically by the Tuscan audiences.

The day concluded with an impromptu concert in the choir's hotel, when we were requested by the catering manager to sing something for his team. Thus, 43 singers sang Bruckner's 'Locus Iste' on the stairs and reception area of the Hotel Miro, an unusual but enjoyable experience.

'The Sun, the Sun suddenly shone out all its warmth'* on Saturday morning on the way to a relaxing day in the beautiful city of Siena, but all too soon we had to return to Montecatini to prepare for our concert in the Basilica Santa Maria Assunta. The Basilica proved to be a difficult church to work in, but, amazingly, our team of 10 supporters pulled out all the stops (ECS joke) and encouraged an audience of approaching 300 to attend the concert, and it was standing room only for much of the time. The concert was, again, a great success with a standing ovation for the encore, a reprise of 'Va Pensiero', better known to British audiences as 'the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from the opera 'Nabucco' by Verdi, and a virtual national anthem in Italy. 'Awesome' was how it was described by one enraptured American listener.

The time for socialising on our tours to the continent is very important and these times were greatly and enthusiastically enjoyed by everyone in the party. There is little doubt that we made our mark in Florence and Montecatini Terme, we are sure that the name of Eltham, or at least one aspect of life in Eltham, will not be forgotten in a hurry by the people of Tuscany.

So, back to work. ECS will be performing Haydn's 'Creation' on 5 July at Holy Trinity Church to mark the centenary of the concert given in 1908. On that occasion, the performance was conducted by Mr B J Hancock, and was reviewed very favourably by a local newspaper at the time. Contrary to popular belief, none of the members of Mr Hancock's ECS will be available to participate in this year's performance, but we are sure we will give the work as fine a performance as they did. Do come along.

If you would like more information about the choir, the centenary and our past and future activities, why not visit our website on http://homepages.which.net/~john.king/ecs/. Eltham Choral Society is an independent, non-auditioning choir of around 80 voices, which rehearses weekly at St. Luke's Church in Westmount Road, and we are always delighted to welcome new members. Why don't you come and join us?

*From Aesop's Fables by Bob Chilcott

Gatwick was a very smooth process for most, no boarding cards mixed up this year, just one lost whilst owner was shopping. He wished to remain anonymous but for those of you who wish to know the last time we were abroad he forgot his passport!

We were not scattered throughout the plane. BA this year sat us in serried ranks, alphabetically, like school. No detention yet, that was to come in the shape of the lovely Roberta who met us at Bologna airport and sat herself in the courier seat of Fabio's coach, one that had all its gears, and fed us with all the facts and figures for which there may be a short exam later in the year.( Did you know that Pinocchio is alive and well and living near Bologna and is real?) There was a brief sojourn at Italy's version of a Little Chef then a continuation of the running commentary so loved by us all and the full recipe for floors made from chestnuts. Please see Pam if you require the ingredients for this delicious confection. As we continued on our way to our destination we passed some walls “still … standing” amongst other notable but, amazingly, immediately forgotten sights, some bright wag in the back started singing what has turned out to be our anthem. So as the dulcet tones of Speed your Journey, (so apt wouldn't you say?) faded away and Fabio nearly crashed his bus in appreciation we rounded the corner of the road to behold the backside of Montecatini Soprano, no! Alto.

And now to our 5 star accommodation the wondrous Hotel Miro / Millenium / Micro/ Milo – with air-conditioning, swimming pool and bar, none of which would be available until 1st June – the day we left.

One or two people played the room game, one notable moved more than once, a little like Goldilocks trying out the quality of the mattresses. As we had a little spare time before dinner many happy punters wandered off around the town to sample its delights, some sensibly filling their tums with ice-cream. Others tried their hardest to hide in the lift, between floors.

The evening meal held one or two surprises and hidden extras. Soup was NOT an hors d'oevres and Vicky got other people into trouble by nipping off before being seen and dropped them in it. Nice one. The bottles of wine were a tad expensive especially as we hadn't ordered them and the carafes were so much cheaper, we found out the next night. The early start to the day did not put off the intrepid drinkers who adjourned to the bar down the road and rearranged the furniture to suit.

Day 2 Florence.
Weather not good, in fact, warm but wet, very wet. We boarded the coach cautiously looking for our courier and as she wasn't there Chris did the honours. Also, Mario regaled us with an amusing account of a Belgian frog . Did I say Belgian? No, please ask him. I still haven't figured it out. So to Florence and the variety of jokes you can think up about Magic Roundabouts and nurses I shall leave to you. The rain came down and down but we bravely made our way around the city and into the church which was our first venue. Once we had readjusted our eyes to the gloom we stumbled to our changing quarters. I say quarters but I think I should take the 'S' off. A small confessional box had thoughtfully been provided for us to enact this procedure. Novel, but we are made of sterner stuff and will not be beaten. Lurch and his dog watched as we performed our routine.

Our very own Roberta in the Sopranos had invited her extended family which filled up most of the church, thank you for the audience Roberta! Quite how they found us is beyond me because the church was down a side street behind a deep trench in the road. Derek and Lance and Joan and Ken et al were seen grabbing unsuspecting innocents off the streets to hear us. We had trouble finding each other in the gloom until Lurch switched the lights on, and Nick gave us directions in wonderful Italian. A prize goes to anyone who can reveal to the writer who the man in the striped shirt was who kept disappearing behind us. The forthcoming concert was great, nay Bellissimo and someone even wanted a signed programme. The emotions were so high Mario left his suit and his music behind but Chris found the latter and, not realising the true owner, promised to return it if they came to Chris's room later that evening to retrieve it! Needless to say he changed his mind. Whizz back to the Hotel Micro “still…standing” and a late evening meal, pleasant companionship and two waitresses “almost… smiling”. It was at this moment that the lottery first came to my attention. All will be revealed later.

Day 3 Siena/Lucca.
The day did not have an auspicious start when the lavatory seat disintegrated beneath the writer's behind. (I was using it as a seat whilst painting my toe-nails for those of you with other thoughts.) So now we have a bathroom with room to swing a loo seat but not a cat. The occupants of this room will now be “Standing…still”.

As I was in the party that went to Siena I cannot yet tell you what went on in Lucca ( I gather Nick went to Lucca on the train. Did he have a ticket?) but Siena was a hit. About 45 of us went and some of us sat in the Piazza del Campo, having a pizza and then a pissa in the piazza after the pizza which was very expensive. However the whole experience was fantastic. Thank you all for arranging this extra gem. As we had to be back at the hotel for 6 we jumped back on the coach and had the best running commentary for the hols. Many objects are “still….standing” you'll all be pleased to hear, walls, cars, people, traffic lights - need I go on?

Montepulciano Basilica. Nope, Montecatini Basilica likes to hide its organist, has one helluvan echo and as an added extra has an organ that needs a little attention. In other words the rehearsal was quite an experience. We like to keep Nick on his toes. So once again abject fear was instilled into the choir just before the performance in what looked like was going to be an empty auditorium of the Basilica. Oh ye of little faith. Well to be fair there was some competition – brass band, Theatre Verde, lapdancing club, Jazz group, magic roundabout (remember Florence?) Saturday night fever.

At this point Roberta came into her own. She shot off to Hotels – “still… standing” and rounded up and herded in flocks, nay Montetudes, of appreciative, even astounded and quite possibly drunken people who gave us the rapturous “still….standing” ovation of an FA cup final. What a triumph ! The highlight of our career. Bob Chilcott had deviously sent spies who were staying at the Hotel Mediocre and witnessed the occasion with umpteen encores.

And so back to our luxurious accommodation where we promptly undid all the good we had done by singing loudly into the night – a musical cacophony that gradually sank as did the Titanic bouncy castle.

Day 4 Montecasino/Don/Carlo/Blanc/etc.
Breakfast at the Hotel Millennium – “still…standing” in line for a cornflake and dribble of yogourt and no coffee. Staff “still …..smiling”. The day of the funicular for most because today the SUN, THE SUN! came out. Montecarlo or bust, the frontside of Montecatini Soprano was to be attacked. Helena decided to walk down, got lost and did the E.C.S. walking montethon – the Chris'll fix it medal for intrepid exploration of the backside goes to H.F.

She is “still ….walking”.

Lunch and the restaurant was a great success thanks to the hard work and preparation of the sub-committee. As speeches began the Maitre D' called us to order with his little bell – “still….ringing” in our ears we cheered and drank the waters of Montepulciano. There was a small presentation to Mario, a frog, can someone please tell me why? The afternoon being free time was pleasantly passed by some who went to the Tettucio thermal gardens and listened to the twelve-fingered pianist “still….playing” the Entertainer at warp factor 12. Two apparently deaf English patients stopped me and questioned my presence and health, having seen us the night before in the Basilica. Asking if I was “still….sitting” they then went on to praise the concert the night before but in particular the performance of Chris Eastwood who had popped out from behind the woodwork to tumultuous applause.

On the sad way back to the airport, awards in the now time-honoured fashion, were presented to a variety of deserving people. One that must be mentioned is the Vicky Browne Fashion Lottery – won conclusively by Trish who guessed correctly the number of corsets that Vicky had worn over the week-end. As we entered the area near Pisa airport the tower “still….standing” was pointed out to L.Ramsey, though why she needed to see the air-traffic control tower is beyond me, must be nerves.

And there we are another exciting trip over, but this one has to go down as the best yet especially in terms of audience.

One last word must go to our groupies who unfailingly kept us going and heard every note again and again and are still with us, thank you again for you support and dexterous fingers (Del-boy!) and the photographic skills of our very own Lord Snowden – Ken T.

'til the next time.

Me……”still….sitting”