Sunday, April 27, 2014

Where is Joan Sutherland?

I do love attending our sweet Spanish ward.  But trying to listen in meetings spoken in a language I can't understand sometimes takes too much concentration for me to maintain--and my mind wanders.  One of the simple pleasures I enjoy at our ward is a game I call. "find the opera singer."

Some woman in our ward has a beautiful opera soprano voice.  We have a large ward, and she does not always sing loudly.  But we can definitely hear her on high notes in certain hymns.  For instance, in the hymn--"I Stand All Amazed" you can always hear her voice during the chorus, "Oh it is wonderful, that He should care for me, enough to die for me.  Oh it is wonderful!  Wonderful to me!"
Today we sang "God be with you till we meet again."  We could hear her beautiful voice on the high notes of the chorus.  Of course all of these hymns are sung in Spanish.

So Bryce and I try to discreetly look around toward where we think we hear her.  We are starting to know our ward members much better, so it is possible that we already know her.  The easy way to identify her would be to ask someone.  But what would be the fun in that?  I find myself looking forward to the hymns each week.  Not just to listen for our mystery opera singer, but also because most of the members of our ward sing with gusto.  Even those who can't even carry a tune.  I love that enthusiasm!  But I especially love listening carefully for her voice and smiling with pleasure when I can hear it through the congregation.  When I finally discover who the singer is, I will still enjoy listening to her--but right now the mystery adds to my pleasure!

1 comment:

Fran said...

Ahhh music! The universal language.