Free Cosacks Choir from Saint Petersburg

[cubanmiamiboy]

Hello there!

Well, I just came from a beautiful concert held at the Helsinki Russian Cultural Center by the Free Cossacks Choir, an amazing folk vocal troupe that gave a two hours performance for a full house, which consisted of mainly Russians. I got to know about the concert because they also performed during the Divine Liturgy this past Sunday at the Helsinki Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral, which I attended. At the service they performed "a capella", the women wearing beautifully crafted long dresses and over head veils, the men wearing an ornate rendition of the typical white army cossacks uniform. The hymns were very solemn. The program tonight was totally opposite, very cheerful folk songs and lots of national dances. At the very end of the performance one of the men danced to a song while maneuvering a spear over his head. At some point another man came out waving a huge old imperial Russian flag, with the two heads eagle. Then the man with the spear knelt down and kissed it with a deep, respectful bow. I was moved.

I couldn't´d find a clip of this troupe, but here is a similar troupe, so you can have an idea of this performance.

Tomorrow I will be going to Sweden. Will report back!

[dirac]

Sounds like a wonderful and colorful performance, cubanmiamiboy. Thanks for telling us about it.