Day 49, June 3, Show time, or "Break-a-leg" Day in New York!

This morning we got up and got started with breakfast at a large New York Deli. Doug, David and I all had breakfast and decided to take a tour of New York City on the Top View Hop on Hop off tour bus. Our breakfast was fantastic, but our experience with the bus tour was incredibly frustrating and disappointing.

We chose to take the Uptown tour so that David Paul could see Central Park. We eventually got going on the tour after about a 45 minute delay for an empty bus to carry us. It appears as if the company pushes to sell more tickets for the tour than they can accommodate on the buses. They do not monitor the lines that assemble at each stop and they provided little to no information about which lines anyone should enter. It was a disaster!

We finally got on a bus and Patrise decided to just stay on the bus and ride it around so as to not have to try and gain entry onto the bus again. Doug was trying to squeeze the tour in before his afternoon dress rehearsal which began at 1. We purchased our tickets around 10, then grabbed breakfast and started to line up for the bus around 10:45 am. The bus ride was only supposed to take a little more than an hour, so we thought that this was doable. Since we were not able to get on a bus until 11:35, it was cutting the tour short for Doug. He decided to skip the last three stops and take a Lyft to Carnegie Hall so that he could get there on time. David Paul decided to hop off the bus and visit the Metropolitan High Museum or the MET and meet Patrise back at the hotel.

Turns out that the bus did make it back to the hotel at 12:55, so Doug could have made it back to the dress rehearsal on time, if he had decided to stay on the bus. Patrise ended up having lunch by herself at Brooklyn Grill and she had an Arugula Salad and Kreugel for lunch. She reported that the krugel was sweet and very good. After lunch she returned to the hotel to wait on David Paul. Here are some of the many photos Doug took along the tour...

Here are some photos Doug took of the dress rehearsal...

(Looking at the different sections, basses and baritones are in the foreground)

(Selfie with the Carnegie auditorium in the background. The man standing next to me is Stephen Dean. His parents were neighbors of ours for 23 years, until we moved in February 2020.)

(With my baritone buddy from TCS, Tim Peek. A wonderful gentleman. I have named this photo, "Two Gentlemen from Atlanta.")

(The fearless leader of the Trey Clegg Singers, Mr. Trey himself. This was his 30th performance at Carnegie Hall, with one ensemble or another. However, this is the first time any of the Trey Clegg Singers has been part of a Carnegie performance. And to think, he only started the ensemble seven years ago -- an amazing amount of artistic progress in such a short time.)

(The star of every show, the Carnegie Hall auditorium itself)

Both Doug and David Paul arrived back at the hotel around 3 and everyone rested and relaxed until 4:30 p.m. when it was time to get dressed for the evening’s performance and dinner. We all had dinner together at the Redeye Grill at 5:30 p.m. Patrise had to meet Billy and Donna at the front of Carnegie Hall at 6:30 p.m., to give them their tickets and make sure that they were seated. David Paul’s seat was next to theirs. All three of them seemed to have a good time together at the concert. My seat was purchased earlier by Doug, so I was seated in the same center area, but a few rows in front of them.

(And now, a series of pre-concert photos taken by Patrise, just added to the day's blog entry on June 6.)

The concert was wonderful! The combined chorus was one of four acts for the evening, but they were overwhelmingly the best. The last group of the evening sung a piece that was based on a jazz motif with words in Latin. It was a jazz version of the sacred mass, and it was titled Missa Lucis (Mass of Light). It was truly amazing that the composer was able to pull that off.

Doug took the two photos (below) of the assembled chorus, before they took the stage. Patrise took photos of the group on the stage, before the concert began. (Photography was not allowed, once the concert began.) We will add her photos to the blog later.

After the concert, we all went across the street to the Carnegie Café for dessert and coffee. We talked about our perceptions on the concert and general topics of interest. We had a good evening and called it quits after 10:30 p.m.

We leave New York tomorrow and both of us are ready to get back to the road in the RV.