The Blacktip Island Community Choir’s alto section during a break from rehearsing ‘O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion’ from Handel’s Messiah Thursday afternoon. L-R are Alison Diesel, Marina DeLow, Sue Nami and Peachy Bottoms. (photo courtesy of Jerry’s Dive Club)
As part of its summer choral series, the Blacktip Island Community Choir will perform selections from Handel’s ‘Messiah’ underwater off the Diddley’s Landing public pier during the small Caribbean island’s church services Sunday to raise money for musical instruments for the island’s three elementary school students.
“It’s something that’s never been done,” BICC choir master Doris Blenny said. “We have two churches, an abundance of vocal talent and some of the most pristine reefs in the Caribbean. Why no one has combined all those things before is beyond me. We got the idea from a diving guest who sang AC/DC songs through the entirety of each dive.
“Truth be told, it’s more humming through regulators than singing, but the effect is otherworldly,” Blenny said. “The soprano, alto, tenor and baritone parts each resonate in ways they never did topside. The underwater milieu enhances the acoustics so the parts truly intertwine.”
Organizers say the performance will be live streamed to both the island’s churches.
“We’ll have the entire choir surrounded by hydrophones to broadcast the best sound quality,” tenor Gage Hoase said. “And we’ll show the performance in real time on big screens in the Our Lady of Blacktip Chapel as well as the Blacktip Interdenominational Church during their respective services.
“We’ve had nothing but positive feedback so far,” Hoase said. “And, while this is a summer performance, if it’s as popular as we think it’ll be, we have plans to do the entire ‘Messiah’ during the upcoming Christmas season.”
Local church leaders praised the plan.
“Many people have a passing familiarity with one or two of the ‘Messiah’ melodies, but nothing more,” Our Lady of Blacktip’s Father Audley Crossblesser said. “This performance will broaden that familiarity. I was surprised, diving in on a rehearsal, how many talented hummers we have. This performance should fill the pews. And the coffers.”
The event was not without its critics.
“This performance, while unique, makes a mockery of one of the world’s most beautiful pieces of music,” Our Lady of Blacktip parishioner Jackie Mackrell said. “It focuses on the spectacle, rather than the faiths that should be front and center. What’s next, Gregorian chants played by an underwater kazoo band for All Souls Day?”
The former Reverend Jerrod Ephesians, chair of the island’s Ecumenical Council, disagreed.
“This performance, while unorthodox, will introduce this wonderful music to people who might never have heard it,” he said. “And, end of the day, it shows Blacktip isn’t some cultural black hole. Plus, we’ll be able to kit out the school kids with recorders and ocarinas.”
The Blacktip Times 