This past week, Ballard’s Madrigals held their 43rd annual Madrigal dinners at the St. Matthews Episcopal Church. The dinner consisted of a 5 course meal, constant entertainment from the Jester played by Sam Shumway, and the ethereal voices of the madrigals that lifted the audiences souls to be raised out of their bodies to the sound of the music. Transitioning to the holiday season with Christmas decor embellished across the church. The war lighting created a warm ambiance like one was kissed by the warmth of a fireplace crackling from burning logs, and the smell of candles of the holidays passing through the halls.
The dinner commenced with a song, Dies Irae and right after preludes into Ave Verum Corpus. The audience is entrapped by the sound of the voices. The first dish, Wassail, is brought out with the Madrigals singing Here We Come a Wassailing. Wassails consists of a hot mulled cider drink infused with wine and spices, an early English drink to toast to one’s health which is served in a tea cup for Christmas time. As the Madrigals sang and the audience drank and chattering among others, the jester picked on two Ballard students, Teagan Gaslin and Henry Fan, accusing them to be witches for withholding a “glowing rock” also known as Teagan’s cellular phone. Bringing them to the front to acknowledge the King and Queen and to receive their royal punishment to do the “Royal Itsy Bitsy Spider” they didn’t go on their phone after that.
After Wassail, the next course was a bread bowl of broccoli cheddar soup. Many students in the audience enjoyed the bread bowl, including Melisa Laihu who commented, “The bread bowl was good, the flavors of the broccoli and cheddar clashed well together.” The bread bowl soup was deemed to be a fan favorite throughout the endless night. However, after the bread bowl soup then came out the chicken, mixed rice, and glazed carrots. This dish did not live up to its name “glazed carrots” and fitted more into the name “soggy carrots”. The chicken, may be worse. Slimy, dry, and unseasoned.
As the Madrigals sang more Latin songs, such as, Noel Nouvelet, Coventry Carol, Gaudete, In The Bleak Midwinter, Good King Wenceslas, and Jingle Bells. After dessert, bread pudding. The servers distributed the bread pudding as the Madrigals sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The bread pudding, a purely perfect delicacy topped with rich whipped cream. With the night on the verge of ending, a beautiful rendition of Silent Night was sung as the room was lit with candle light and all joined to sing Silent Night as one. The final song, Little Drummer Boy, was sung as the audience got ready to exit with tears welling in their eyes and one last bow, one last applause, one last dinner, and the dinner has come to an end.
Nonetheless, the food isn’t the main reason guests come to the dinners, it’s the talented singers who spent months practicing day in and day out, so on that night, they share their voice to a room of family, friends, and strangers to do what they enjoy most; to sing and share it with their community.
