The Sudden Return of Singer Leaves Chorus for ‘Holiday at the Pops’ Out in the Cold

A chorus of local singers, most of them members of the Irvine Camerata, got coals in their stockings from the Pacific Symphony this Christmas.

The group of 24 professional singers, dubbed the Holiday Chorus in press releases, was hastily assembled to fill in on the orchestra’s “Holiday at the Pops” program after originally scheduled singer Maureen McGovern bowed out to appear in a Broadway production of Kurt Weill’s “The Three Penny Opera.”

But this week, the singers were just as hastily dropped from the program when McGovern suddenly found herself free after all, with the early closing of the much-panned show, which starred rock singer Sting.

“Holiday at the Pops” was scheduled to be offered Friday and repeats tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The 24 singers dropped from the program will not be paid the agreed-on $200-per-person concert fee, but each was offered a pair of tickets to one of the performances, according to Bruce Bales, assistant director of the Irvine Camerata.

“There are a lot of very disgruntled singers,” Bales said. Many turned down other paying gigs during this most lucrative of seasons for singers, while some purchased concert tickets for family and friends or changed travel plans.

Louis G. Spisto, the orchestra’s executive director, said through a spokesman that the Pacific regretted any inconvenience to the singers. Some orchestra subscribers were unhappy when McGovern originally canceled, he said, and when she became available again, “we had to make every effort” to get her back on the program and said there was not enough time on the program to include the chorus.

Bales had provided the Pacific with a list of singers in mid-November and conducted an informal rehearsal.

Singers had learned about 30 minutes’ worth of music, including two songs in Spanish. Some did not learn that they were being dropped from the program until Wednesday, the day they were to have their first major rehearsal. Bales said he understands the orchestra’s decision to put McGovern back on the program (she was advertised as the concert’s star attraction when tickets went on sale) and realizes that the Pacific had the sudden situation “dumped in their laps.” Still, he said, “it really has been unfair to the singers.”