Merry Xmas (War is Over)
A Beatles Tribute Christmas Concert from Int'l Choir of Prague
Back in the 70’s, weekend-long retrospectives of The Beatles were commonplace. Sometime towards the end of that decade, and with the advent of video-music in the early 80’s, the chances of running across any of their music on standard air-play became increasingly rare. It was almost as if everyone loved their music, but didn’t want to admit that they still couldn’t help themselves from singing along with the simple hooks, and the easy harmony (forgetting how albums such as ‘Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Heats Club Band and their White Album were cutting edge and radically shaped the art of the pop song to this day).
Although a true Beatles fan certainly remembers or knows the annual Christmas albums and recorded greetings released strictly to their fan club members, The Beatles probably don’t generally spring to mind when you think of Christmas Concerts. However, the International Choir of Prague (ICP) will be featuring their music in a tribute to the Liverpudlians/Scousers which they are dubbing ‘A Fab Four Christmas’.
The choir, consisting of 80 people from 25 countries, are recent winners of a Gold Medal at the respected Jirkov Choir Festival, and will be singing a few Christmas Carols, some of their standard ‘everything but Classical Music’ repertoire, and nine of The Beatles tunes, including their two most famous Christmas songs: John Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over); and Paul McCartney’s ‘Wonderful Christmastime’. As usual, they will be accompanied by some of Prague’s best know jazzmen.
The concert’s main segments will show their three main choirs: The Developmental Choir (ages 6-9); The Concert Choir (ages 9-16); and the Adult Choir. ICP also has a smaller ‘Chamber Choir’ made from 10 members of the Adult Choir.
Divadlo U Hasičů, is the venue, and it will all take place on Saturday, December 12th, at 6:00 P.M. There will be a reception following the show.
More information and tickets can be obtained by calling 728-892-928, or writing to sarka.coleman@seznam.cz Additionally, you can go to the choir’s website at www.praguechoir.cz
