What's Opera, Doc?

I'll tell you what's opera, this record is opera. I like to listen to and bring you all different kinds of Christmas music, but I think opera is the hardest for me to get into. I've barely listened to this one so I hope it sounds OK. It's just not my bag at all. Hopefully someone out there will be able to enjoy and appreciate it. This is Chelsea Opera Group Orchestra And Chorus-Frank Bridge "The Christmas Rose" (Pavilion/Pearl (England) SHE 582, Stereo, 1983). I've scanned a few of the bonus items I found in this record, too. There's a flyer from the record company advertising other releases and a hand-written summary of the performance as well. You just never know what you'll find in the sleeves of old records.

1. Introduction
2. Scene I
3. Scene II
4. Scene III

MEGA

High Times

A quickie for you today, I'm tired and too lazy to write anything up. This is High Point Regional High School-Christmas Concert Dec. 1972 (Trutone Records LP 520346, Stereo, 1972). The High Point in question here appears to be in New Jersey. I was hoping it was in North Carolina, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Enjoy!

1. As With Gladness Men Of Old
2. A Child Is Born In Bethlehem
3. In Dulci Jubilo
4. O Bambino
5. A Carol For Children
6. Christ Came To Bethlehem
7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
8. African Noel
9. Variations On An Echo Carol
10. Christmas Medley: Let It Snow; I'll Be Home For Christmas; Home For The Holidays
11. Now Is The Caroling Season
12. Love Came Down At Christmas
13. Sing We Noel
14. Caroling, Caroling
15. Rock-A-My-Baby
16. The Christmas Song
17. The Christmas Waltz

MEGA

Who's Walther?

I'm a little confused by the name of this next group. La Porte is the name of the city in Indiana where the group hails from, but what does Walther League mean? Hmmm, a quick Google search tells me that the Walther League was a youth group associated with, you guessed it, the Lutherans. Time and time again this season, these religious group records have been somehow tied back to the Lutheran church. They must be a denomination that loves to sing. I see where the Walther League was disbanded as an entity in 1968, so this record must predate that. This cover was super glossy, and features an image I haven't seen on other Delta pressings. Perhaps it's a custom image created just for this record. Anybody else ever seen this one? Don't be afraid to pipe up if this one is familiar to you. While you're leaving that comment, give it listen! This is La Porte Walther League Chorus-The Shepherds Story (Delta XCTV 97247/97248 (La Porte, Indiana), Mono, c. 1964).

1. Wake, Awake, For Night Is Flying
2. All Glory, Laud, And Honor
3. God Of Our Fathers
4. I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked
5. By Babylon's Wave
6. Abide With Me
7. Gloria In Excelsis
8. My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord
9. Christmas Day
10. Carol Of The Bells
11. Away In A Manger
12. The Shepherd's Story

MEGA

Lovely Rita

Here's another church choir for you, something that seems to be a staple of the blog this season. There's not a huge amount of commercial Christmas music left out there that I can share without fear of stepping on someone's toes, but there are a ton of these privately produced records that I share with you and hopefully breathe some life back into them. I do wish they were a little more creative with the covers, though. I feel like there are only so many stock image covers and I've shared one or more example of each of them with you this season. Have we seen this one before, I'm not sure at this point. And why are so many of these records from Ohio? Well, that one's fairly easy. When it's time to retire in Ohio, you just drive straight down I-75 and stop when you get to a nice spot in Florida. It's like the new mother road. This is St. Rita Choir-Sing Noel (Dick Wooley 22810 (St. Rita Roman Catholic Church-Solon, Ohio), Stereo). Enjoy!

1. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
2. The First Noel
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
4. O Come All Ye Faithful
5. What Child Is This?
6. Silent Night
7. Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light (From "Christmas Oratorio")
8. Tell Us, Shepherd Maids (Based On French Canadian "D'ou Viens-Tu, Bergere")
9. Lo' How A Rose 'Ere Blooming
10. The Snow Lay All Around
11. What Shall We Give?
12. Ave Maria (From "Convent Mass In C")
13. Panis Angelicus

MEGA

That Was Easy

I'm trying to figure out if this high school was really named after Staples, the office supply chain store. Seems unlikely since they didn't come up with corporate sponsorship until some time well after this album was released, especially for primary education schools. I'm sure there were business schools named after big donors at the time, and certainly athletic fields or stadiums. But high schools? There has to be another reason behind that odd name. Looks like this Staples is in Minnesota, where the thought of a corporate sponsorship is even more unlikely than in a major coastal city. OK, Wikipedia to the rescue. I see this high school is in the city of Staples, formerly Staples Mills, and was named for two prominent lumbermen in the area with the surname Staples. Unusual name, but at least there's a good reason for it. If you wanna hear what Christmas in Staples, Minnesota sounds like, please download Staples High School Chamber Choir-Ye Olde Christmas (Encore Productions E-159 (Staples, Minnesota), Stereo).

1. We Wish You A Merry Christmas
2. Lirum Lirum
3. Ave Verum Corpus
4. Ave Maria
5. Why Weeps, Alas! My Lady-Love
6. Os Justi Meditabitur Sapientiam
7. I Have Longed For Thy Saving Health
8. Fum, Fum, Fum
9. The Holly And The Ivy
10. Christmas Love
11. What Child Is This?
12. Adeste Fideles
13. Deck The Hall
14. Silent Night
15. We Wish You A Merry Christmas

MEGA

Tannenbaum Three

The final entry in our short celebration of The Living Christmas Tree is this entry from spring break capitol of the world, Daytona Beach! Well, former capitol, I guess it's not as popular a spot as it once was when I was of the age when I cared about such things. I think I went once during that time of year, and it was truly crazy. Most of the rest of the year it's a sleepy little village on the water with a lot of old hotels and a million nearly-deserted bars. I guess it gets busy during bike week, and when there's a race in town, but it's strangely sleepy the rest of the time. I guess it's busy enough to support a church or two though, and one of them produced this Christmas record with a fair number of unique tracks for us to enjoy. Please download and give a listen to The Voice Of Victory Choir And Orchestra-The Living Christmas Tree (No Label, No Number (First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Florida), Stereo, 1984).

1. The Living Christmas Tree
2. Christmas Is A Time For Children
3. Come
4. Ring Christmas Bells
5. Let There Be Joy
6. O For A Thousand Voices
7. He Shall Feed His Flock
8. Hosanna
9. How Should A King Come
10. The Splendor Of Christmas Lights

MEGA

Tannenbaum Two

Time for part two of our Living Christmas Tree extravaganza, this time hailing from the home of Disneyland, Anaheim, California! I don't think Anaheim is all that large of a city, so I'm sure this band put in an appearance or two at Disneyland over the years, likely performing some of the material from this LP during the holiday season. I will also award this album the best Christmas tree cover of the batch (even though you haven't seen all of them just yet). The colors and the quality of the photo really stand out in my mind, someone worked really hard to make this image come to fruition. I hope you find the music as pleasing as I find the cover image. This is Western High School A Cappella Choir-The Singing Christmas Tree (National Custom Recording NCR12-671 (Anaheim, California), Stereo).

1. Echo, Noel
2. Sing Gloria
3. O Come, Emmanuel
4. Emitte Spiritum Tuum
5. Carol Of The New Prince
6. Behold That Star
7. Carol Of The Bells
8. O Holy Night
9. Carol Of The Drum
10. A Joyous Christmas Song
11. Silent Night
12. Hallelujah Chorus-"Messiah"

MEGA

Tannenbaum One

This is the first of several records I'm gonna share with you featuring a 'Living Christmas Tree' performance. I was digging through my remaining shares and realized several of them had this theme running through them so I've gathered them together and am going to share them one at a time over the next few days. Back during the season this would probably have been a Super Saturday series of records, but here in the off-season I don't have the drive or shares to post more than one thing a day. The Living Christmas Tree appears to be a tradition among choirs at Christmas where they build a bunch of risers and stand on them to form the shape of a Christmas tree. I'm sure it looks cool and all, but I don't think the effect comes across on record. Thankfully they always include a picture of the performance on the album cover so you can image what they must have looked like as you listen. I, personally, would be scared to death if I had to sing while standing on a rickety structure high off the ground with flaming candles and flammable polyester choir robes all around. This first installment comes from a church not more than 30 miles away from my condo, so it's safe to say these folks could be neighbors of mine. This is Northside Baptist Church-The Living Christmas Tree (Hope Recordings CR-14 (Northside Baptist Church, St. Petersburg, Florida), Stereo). I've shared plenty of other Living Christmas Tree records with you in the past, let me see if I can drop some links in here for you. Here's one, here's another, and another. Oh, here's number four.

1. Marilyn Dunne-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
2. Bill Salisbury & Children-Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
3. Steve Boalt-The Christmas Song
4. The Certain Sounds-White Christmas
5. The Moon Sisters-Keep Christ In Christmas
6. Trio: Dorothy Moon, John & Marilyn Dunne-Christ Is Christmas
7. John Dunne-What Child Is This?
8. Steve Boalt-The Angels Sang
9. Steve Boalt & Choir-O Little Town Of Bethlehem
10. Dorothy Moon, Choir & Orchestra-No Room
11. Melinda Moon, Choir & Orchestra-Silent Night
12. Steve Boalt-In My Heart I Believe
13. Choir & Orchestra-Wise Men Still Seek Him
14. Steve Boalt, Choir & Orchestra-The Story Of Christmas

MEGA

More Elly

If that last share of soprano Elly Ameling was your thing, then you'll be happy to see this second Christmas album from her. I recorded an awful lot of Christmas music last year and was excited when I discovered a couple different albums by the same artist. It wasn't until later that I decided her music wasn't really up my alley. But I persisted and put the same effort into her music that I put into all my shares, so I hope you can enjoy her style. This is Elly Ameling-Christmas With Elly Ameling/Wiehnacht Mit Elly Ameling/Elly Ameling Chante Noël (CBS Masterworks M 36677, Stereo, 1980). Lots of different titles on this one, I guess they didn't want to have to re-title it if they sold it in a different country.

1. Cantate Pastorale Per La Nativita 'O Di Betlemme Altera'
2. Weihnachtsgefühl
3. Mariä Wiegenlied, Op.76 No.52
4. Epiphanias
5. Weihnachtslieder, Op.8
6. Berceuse
7. Villancio Castellano
8. Villancio Vasco

MEGA

Elly (Not Mae)

Talk about something outside of my comfort zone, this is it. Elly has a soprano that can cut right to the heart of the matter, so to speak. But I try to share all sorts of Christmas music with you and perhaps this is right up your alley. Wikipedia tells me that Elly is Dutch and that she's still with us at the ripe old age of 93, so you go girl! Why not be a little adventurous and give a listen to Elly Ameling-Christmas Songs From Europe (Peters International PLE 092, Stereo, 1977).

1. As I Sat On A Sunny Bank
2. Sweet Was The Song
3. In Dulci Jubilo
4. Ecce Nova Gaudia
5. Nun Wiegen Wir Das Kindlein (from The Tabulaturbuch Henricus Beginiker, 1622)
6. Uff'm Berge
7. Geistliches Wiegenlied, Op. 91, No. 2
8. Cantilene Pro Adventu "Ein' Magd, Ein' Dienerin"
9. O Suver Maecht Van Ysraël
10. Klein, Klein Jezuken
11. Cansó de Nadal
12. Villancico - Baile De Nadal
13. Villancico de Córdoba
14. Villancico Andaluz
15. Entre Le Boeuf Et L'âne Gris
16. L'appel Des Bergers
17. Noël Pour L'amour De Marie
18. Noël Des Enfants Qui N'ont Plus De Maisons
19. Noël Des Jouets

MEGA