Cantate remembers World War I in song

The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn HISTORY LESSON: Lynn Payette, left, directs Cantate, the women's vocal ensemble dressed in period costumes and sponsored by the Hot Springs Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota at its annual holiday luncheon.
The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn HISTORY LESSON: Lynn Payette, left, directs Cantate, the women's vocal ensemble dressed in period costumes and sponsored by the Hot Springs Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota at its annual holiday luncheon.

The women's vocal ensemble Cantate stepped back in time to observe the centennial of World War I during its annual holiday luncheon Wednesday at Hot Springs Country Club.

Hot Springs Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota sponsored Cantate, and they recounted some of the sounds and events of the Great War with their program "Over There: A Remembrance of World War I in Story and Song," featuring beloved a cappella carols and patriotic performances from the era.

"We are paying tribute to the soldiers and to those who continue to serve. It's our patriotic Christmas this year," Robin Williams, chapter president, told The Sentinel-Record.

"We have 160 reservations and we are just so thrilled. This is our annual fundraiser and all the funds that we are able to accumulate, we give back to music organizations in Hot Springs, everything from the flute ensemble to the Hot Springs Music Festival, we have bought violins for one of the schools, keyboards, and recording machines for music therapy. We give back where we see a need and it is fun to disperse the money to different groups."

Lynn Payette, director of Cantate, wrote the script and assumed a personality appropriate to the program introducing herself to the audience as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle "M'greet" MacLeod, keeping the exotic performer's better known stage name Mata Hari a mystery until the very end of the program.

Payette's "alter egos" have become a welcome tradition with the audience at the annual luncheons and she combines humor with history in her presentations saying Mata Hari, the famous entertainer who was allegedly a spy in World War I, "in truth, she probably was not. She was probably one of the people who did travel around freely, she was from the Netherlands, a neutral country, and she was given permission to go many places that other people probably could not or would not."

"She was a very fashionable woman, so, I'm trying to present her as the trendsetter that she was."

In coming up with the character, "This year, I was a little bit concerned, because nothing was coming to mind. And then, the perfect thing came to me in a flash and I hope everybody enjoys it," she said.

Payette's script was woven through performances of songs such as "You're a Grand Old Flag," by George M. Cohan, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," by Irving Berlin, "We're in the Army Now," by Isham Jones, "Over There," by Cohan, and "Till We Meet Again," by Richard Whiting, along with beloved carols of the day.

"We try to find things appropriate to the time, appropriate to the place and appropriate to the program that we are doing. With the centennial of the first World War, I think it's a wonderful opportunity to relive this important time in our history. We don't have any survivors from that time, or very, very few," she said.

Members of Cantate are Janet Ford, Mara Magdalene, Brittany Osman, Kay Provus, Cindy Smith, Gay Smith, Gay Strakshus, Dianna Thayer, Robin Williams, Kathie White, and Payette.

A display of posters and memorabilia at the luncheon entrance also reflected the time.

Cindy Smith provided items for the exhibit that were owned by her grandfather Charles Mitchell who returned home from the war in 1919.

His gas mask, helmet, mess kit, some field manuals and his Bible were displayed.

"The gas mask was all stuck together and my son Tony was probably 8 at the time and spent hours wetting it and gently pulling it apart," Smith said.

"Inside his Bible was a newspaper clipping I typed up so you could read it and then inside the covers of the Bible were letters from Theodore Roosevelt and Gen. Pershing."

Local on 12/18/2014

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