We rehearsed this afternoon for Sunday's Artist's Mass, in the St. Carolus Borromeus church in Antwerp. All I can say is "wow, what a great place to sing". The picture above was taken in the gallery, and that's where I'll be for the mass. When standing in this spot, the massive pipes of the organ fill the upper wall of the gallery directly behind you and the organ console is to your right. That altarpiece you can see in the photo was painted by Rubens, and he also was involved in the design of a number of architectural elements, especially the exterior facade and the side chapels.
Jan - the organist with whom I'll be performing - showed me some pictures of the original 39 paintings with which Rubens had decorated the ceiling...he mentioned that unfortunately "there was a fire, and we lost them". When I asked him when the fire had happened, he replied "1718". I guess when the church was finished in 1622 they didn't have sprinkler systems or smoke alarms.
Anyway I'm really looking forward to it, and happily we are at a compromise for the programme; it's anybody's game at this point with three Vaughan Williams, one Mendelssohn, and one Bach. Goooo team!
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