Christmas Sing-a-Long at Royal Albert Hall

One of the highlights of my trip to London was a Christmas sing-a-long concert at the magnificent Royal Albert Hall. The concert featured a full orchestra and a large choir, soloist Alison Jiear--whose career includes roles in several musicals in London's West End (the UK equivalent of being on Broadway)--and a very enthusiastic, funny, and incredibly talented conductor, Jonathan Cohen.

This was a true audience participation event. People were decked out in Santa hats, reindeer antlers, hats with flashing lights, and the like. We sang at least a dozen songs, both traditional carols like "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and modern favorites like "Frosty the Snowman." The audience was encouraged to stand up, dance around, clap our hands, and have fun with the singing.

One thing that Suzanne and I noticed was the different verses the Brits sing for some of the traditional hymns and carols. In several instances, verse one was the same, but verse two was completely different--lyrics we'd never sung nor heard before--and verse three used the words that we expected in verse two. The tune for "O Little Town of Bethlehem" was also not what we were expecting. It was lovely, just different from the tune we are accustomed to hearing with that song here in the US. Who knew a sing-a-long would be so educational?

The hall itself is stunning. The enormous pipe organ at the front looks like a castle. Boxes line the perimeter, decked out in plush red. Although the hall is quite large, its circular shape and design make it feel like an intimate venue, without a bad seat in the house.

Although there isn't a bad seat in the house, we had truly fabulous seats, on the floor, just a few rows back from the stage. Here's a shot of the organ and stage before the orchestra and choir came on. You can see how close we were by the proximity of the heads in front of us to the camera and the distance to that grand piano.


And here's the view of the hall behind us. Amazing, isn't it? There's the floor, the gallery, two tiers of boxes, plus a standing-room balcony on top.


Just as enjoyable as the concert was the private tour of the hall we had arranged beforehand and lunch in there cafe (for a fee, of course). Our dramatic, opera-singer tour guide took us up back staircases and into private areas while teaching us about the history of the building and how it is used today. We got to see the Queen's box, go into the private "break room" used by the Royal Family when they come for a performance, see the private staircase by which they access that room and their box, and go up to the balcony for a closer look at the ceiling and a bird's-eye view of the stage and hall. The bits of information we gleaned made our concert experience that much more meaningful.

Me with Suzanne

Another excellent feature of the day was that one of the Brits from my Ireland cycling group in the summer, Richard, came to London to meet up for the day and was part of our concert-going fun. He is a delightful man and it was wonderful to see him again. He hasn't spent much time in London nor had he ever been to Royal Albert Hall, so we were all like eager children, soaking in the sights and sounds and experience of the outing.

Me with Richard during intermission

You can tell by those big smiles on our faces what a great time we had. It was the perfect way to get into the spirit of Christmas in London.