Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols", "That Yonge Child" mezzo-soprano solo, with a 12 year-old Sarah Hicks onstage, bracing for her debut. Judy Loman, harpist extraordinaire, has performed the first five movements impeccably under the direction of Jean Ashworth Bartle, and the audience eagerly awaits the remaining sections. She works her way through the short introduction of four bars, consisting of primarily repeated Cs and Ds, as does the entirety of the song.
Little Sarah inhales, ready to sing. Judy Loman's final chord...
*TWANG*
bye bye D string.
THAT's not supposed to happen...
Bartle looks at Loman. Loman looks at Bartle. They both look at Sarah.
The audience murmurs. The choir squirms. Someone in the alumni chuckles.
Being the show person, Jean Bartle turns around, smiling to the audience. Judy sneaks off stage and runs to get her equipment. Bartle tells the story of her life. Sarah cowers. Amid the pinging of Loman off-key tuning her new harp string, Jean struggles with five minutes of improvised speech and nervous laughter.
Tuned. Finally. Sarah sings wonderfully, and is greeted with cheers and a standing ovation with many movements left to go. The audience is entertained to no end. Isn't that what they paid for? ;)
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