The MHS Choral Departments 62^nd annual Boar’s Head Feast can perhaps best be described as a chaotic success.  The event, which included dinner and singing, started off spectacularly when the infinitely charismatic Santiago Alfonzo Meza announced the arrival of the renaissance dinner party, played by the McLean Madrigals.  Striding in glamorously lined up by two’s, the madrigals walked while singing their first song, Past Three o’Clock.  As they walked through the dinner tables, the wonderful voices of the Madrigals filled the Redeemer Lutheran Church hall in which the event took place with a sort of angelic beauty which, unfortunately, the madrigals were scarcely able to recreate during the rest of the evening.

But before we delve into the belly of the event, some background information is necessary.  The Boar’s Head was, in old times, a central part of a Christmas feast.  Consequently, this event showcases a traditional late medieval or renaissance feast of nobles, as judged by the costumes.  The nobles, played by the McLean Madrigals, sat at a table on stage having dinner conversation while eating and performing selected traditional songs.  At various points there were also brief performances by the McLean Women’s and Men’s choirs along with some songs sung by all the choirs together.  The audience was similarly given dinner, served by the dedicated members of the McLean Women’s Choir and so it was quite literally dinner and a show.

The Women’s Choir served dinner and drinks to all the tables and their shining moment came almost directly after the Madrigal’s entrance when they, while singing the traditional carol titled Wassail, named after a type of holiday cider, they brought pitchers of wassail to every table.  Unfortunately, as the song came to an end and the members of the Woman’s Choir receded back to the kitchen, no pitcher of Wassail had been brought to the poor, dejected members of table 15, myself one of them.  This crisis went unnoticed by the Women’s Choir and The Highlanders parched photographer, Allen Harris, was forced to ask a member of Women’s Choir for a pitcher of wassail.  The pitcher that came was half empty (or half full if you claim you are an optimist) and seemed suspiciously as if it was another table’s left overs.  The problem was eventually righted as, fewer than two songs later, table 15 was graced with a full pitcher of fresh, warm wassail.

The service of Women’s Choir was otherwise impeccable and the food they served was even better.  Members of the audience were given a choice between Chicken and Pasta.  Catered by La Madeleine, both options of the food were excellent.  I can say with confidence that the wonderful food was one of the highlights of the evening.

The actual plot of the Madrigal’s dinner, shown through their dialogue between songs, was not a highlight.  Or maybe it was.  I wouldn’t really know because only a few voices, namely those of seniors Cleo Allen-Mills, Nancy Pruett, and William Todd; junior Lily Lord; and local celebrity and senior Meg Hashem were loud enough to be heard from my seat near the back.  The volume of other voices particularly that of senior Grace Myers, can only be described as a dull whisper.  Consequently the actual conversation was lost to me.  Furthermore, in an embarrassing show, most members of the madrigals looked down at their scripts on multiple occasions.  The apparent lack of rehearsal and memorization was best represented when Hashem yelled a command at a serving boy who had clearly missed his cue and was nowhere to be seen.

However, a choir’s strength is in its singing and the McLean choral department proved that.  The most notable performances include the Mclean Armonia’s wonderfully stirring performance of Molly Malone in which the sopranos, led by senior Ariel Michaelson’s glowing voice.

In the Madrigal’s performance of Ave Maria, seniors Nancy Pruett and Gabrielle Schleppenbach’s similarly glowing voices reached angelic heights as they shined in the well-known, immensely difficult song.

Following dinner three late 20^th century songs were performed by the members of Men’s Choir including The Turtle’s So Happy Together, performed by sophomore Jack Posey in thanks to Redeemer Lutheran Church’s Pastor, Sandy Kessinger; Johnny Burnette’s Dreamin’, performed by senior Wolfe Glick; and The Jackson Five’s I Want You Back performed by Men’s Choir.  Glick’s performance was average at best as his usual charisma and stage presence seemed absent and his historically consistent voice was shaky.  Though the others were well performed, they did not fit with the traditional, medieval/renaissance style of the event.  They also happen to be the same songs that were performed for Singing Valentines in February and their presence at a traditional Christmas feast was very questionable.

Performance reviewers are often accused of being petty and so I will conclude by saying that the official program of the event not only failed to list all of the songs that were performed (the three 20^th century songs were missing) but the songs listed were done so in a different order than the order in which they were sung.

With wonderful food, nearly flawless service, and occasionally-inspirational singing and despite lost dialogue (perhaps more due to the acoustics of the room, and not the soft voices of the performers), the Boar’s Head Feast was, after all, a pretty good event and one I am certainly pleased to have attended.