St. Paul's Cathedral was next and on Barbara's must-see list. We did the audio tour of the main floor, then climed the steps (all 257 of them) to the Whispering (1st) Gallery and then another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery which has a fabulous outdoor view of the city. As it was nearly 5:30 for Evensong, there wasn't enough time to climb up to the third level, the Golden Gallery, another 152 steps, but that was okay with me. The picture is of the dome from the Stone Gallery. (See! We really did climb up there!)
When we got back down to the main floor we sat down to wait for Evensong. St. Paul's is Church of England. Neither one of us had ever attended a Church of England service, and we looked forward to it. Just before Evensong began, an announcement was made that anyone who wished could sit in the choir stalls. We hopped right onto the opportunity and went up to sit between the congregation and the altar.
Usually, the choir is a combination of boys and men. The boys sing soprano and the men sing alto, tenor and bass. But in this choir they were all adult men (8 or 10 members in the choir) and there was a wonderful countertenor. (For the non-musicians, countertenors sing higher than tenors; for an all-male 4-part ensemble, the countertenor sings the soprano part.) The singing and organ music were beautiful. For the music lovers in the group, the choir performed an introit, the Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, a psalm, and an anthem by Orlando Gibbons. Sounds reverberate around the room for several seconds, and the officients wait to let the sounds die down before speaking the next line. It was a great experience!
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