2010 Shasta High Madrigal Dinner – Simply Stunning

I’ve lived in Redding since 2002, but this is the first year I have found my way to Shasta High School’s annual Madrigal Dinner event – it is certainly my loss!  This year, I attended the opening night – Wednesday, December 1st and What an extraordinary evening it was!  This step back in time is so wonderfully guided by what seemed like a cast of thousands – all high school students at Shasta High School in Redding. We were greeted outside by a beautifully costumed lady in waiting who politely asked to see our ‘parchment’ and wished to know how we would like to be ‘announced’ when we entered the castle (pr: kah-ssle)  (The castle, by the way, was decked with hundreds of flickering candles and hanging banners that really made us believe we WERE in a castle.)  We were then introduced to King Jackson and Queen Krista and grandly escorted to our table where we were greeted and constantly attended to by our table hostess Lady Hailey and the constantly comically-bickering Lord Ryan and Lady Joelle (pictured here.)  For the entire evening this trio stayed in perfect character while serving course after delicious course, from hot buttered rolls to figgy pudding with secret sauce.  They also kept our wassail glasses full and sang with the choir in beautiful voice.  Their youthful energy and exuberance was contagious and they (and the many other servers and hosts) play a huge role in the entire immersion experience. While Ryan, Joelle and Hailey waited on us hand and foot, the Town Crier would frequently announce a request by the King or Queen, such as “The Queen requests the Royal Dancers”, and we would be entertained by none other than the Royal Dancers.  There were Royal Dancers, Royal Singers, Royal Woodwinds, Royal Brass, Royal Strings, Royal Players, and I think a few others – but they were definitely all Royal! The Royal Players treated us with a multi-chapter saga of Prince Shrub, the King’s wayward son who went away to college and came back no more enlightened than when he left, except that he had many big words that he didn’t use quite right, such as “underexpected”.  The  Prince is put in charge of his mother’s birthday party, but mistakenly thinks he is supposed to create a political party, and the advise of his evil advisers, Sir Speakeasy (the speech writer) and Dr. Spin quickly takes the unwitting ‘Shrub’ down a slippery slope.  An astute member of our table observed that she saw certain parallels between Prince Shrub and a certain recent US President . . . hmmmmmmm. While everyone performing was wonderful, they don’t call this a Madrigal dinner by accident.  Everything that was done by the Madrigal singers was exquisite.  I wish I had a list of the songs they sang so I could remember more clearly all the special moments, for there were many.  Their training is impressive, and the experience of hearing those crystal clear young voices with such advanced skills in voice control, dynamics, diction, and breath support is beyond description.  They sang in a formation that put a singer at the head of each of the 40 or so long dining tables, then rotated after each number so that we could enjoy a different ‘close up’ during each song.  The acoustics of the  Frank Lloyd Wright designed Pilgrim Congregational Church lent itself perfectly to allowing us to enjoy the prominence of the voice in front of us, while still hearing the ‘whole’ sound of the chorus as their voices danced in the air all around us. The haunting “Fum, Fum, Fum” and the wickedly clever “My Bonny Lass She Smelleth” were two of my favorites.  Appropriately, the final recessional as the singers and all the players signaled the end of the evening was the most beautiful moment of the night.  After a fabulous ‘concert’ in which we, the audience, were instructed not to clap, but to just sit and absorb the beautiful music that was being presented to us, the entire cast segued into a sweet, delicate and emotional ‘Silent Night’.  The ten people at our table ranged from ages 15 – 70, and everyone of us had tears in our eyes as the singers gracefully glided past us during this amazing closing piece. I’m so sorry to have let so much time pass before getting myself to this extraordinary event, but at least now I know – and now you know!  This is definitely one of the must-sees on the North State  list of the top ten things to do during the Holidays!