# Mendelssohn Choir in Toronto sings Ode to Joy with masks on



## Bogdan (Sep 12, 2014)

I went to the TSO concert last night where Gimeno conducted Beethoven's 9th. It was a bit of a surprise to see the choir rise in the 4th movement and start singing with their masks on. The soloists, who were sitting with the choir, did not wear masks. The results were terrible, as you may easily imagine: a muffled, constricted sound from the choir. Quite disappointing really, especially that I've heard them a couple of years ago singing Mozart's Requiem and it was glorious.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Was the string section masked up? The audience? Maybe Toronto is starting to have problems again like some places in Europe. Those vaccines sure worked great, didn't they? I was at a rehearsal last week where no one wore masks except the conductor and he had to repeat everything he said 2 or three times. Most of us just tuned him out after a short time. Many orchestras are suffering from smaller than pre-covid attendance and it's killing the box office receipts.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Bogdan said:


> I went to the TSO concert last night where Gimeno conducted Beethoven's 9th. It was a bit of a surprise to see the choir rise in the 4th movement and start singing with their masks on. The soloists, who were sitting with the choir, did not wear masks. The results were terrible, as you may easily imagine: a muffled, constricted sound from the choir. Quite disappointing really, especially that I've heard them a couple of years ago singing Mozart's Requiem and it was glorious.


Do you mean Covid masks?


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## Bogdan (Sep 12, 2014)

It was strange, the audience was about 50% masked, same with the orchestra string section, then obviously woodwinds and brass don't have a choice, soloists without masks, but sitting in the back with the choir (another strange choice, the singers should be in front of the orchestra, they sort of struggled to have enough volume from back there) and the choir all masked up (yes, covid masks).


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