The sixth annual Christmas Madrigal Dinner presented by the Brainerd High School A Cappella and Windfall Choirs will be held over three nights, instead of two like years past.
The dinners will begin with a social at 6 p.m. Dec. 3-5 at Cragun's Legacy Golf Course Clubhouse Pavilion on Highway 77 in Brainerd. The clubhouse can seat 200 guests per night. Tickets are $35 and are available at the BHS main office or by calling 218-454-6200. All seats are reserved for meal planning purposes.
All proceeds from the event support the choir program.
More than 60 students in the high school program, dressed in medieval costumes, start adding "thees" and "thous" to their vocabulary as they welcome guests back to a time of feasting and festival for the dinner.
Brian Stubbs, director of the BHS choirs, said, "This year we are adding a third evening. We are excited to offer a Saturday night show for the first time. It is so gratifying to have the support from the community that we enjoy. We are trying to do more fundraisers that center on our work together, rather than unrelated door to door sales."
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The event is divided into four parts: Welcoming guests and "Wassail" social in the Legacy Lodge; a four-course feast served in the main hall; entertainment by the court jester and cast; and the concert of familiar Christmas carols as the choir surrounds the audience.
The menu this year includes:
Course 1: Spiced Holiday Wassail.
Course 2: Spinach cranberry salad with dried cranberries served with poppy seed vinaigrette and varied rolls with butter.
Course 3: Apple Roulade-Chicken Breast stuffed with apples and stuffing served with a brandy apple cream sauce and served with honey glazed carrots and seasoned potato fingerlings.
Course 4: Bread Pudding in caramel or whisky sauce.
Stubbs said every year the script is different, so no show will ever be the same. All the scripts revolve around a common format, but the entertainment and song selection is not repeated.
Stubbs said the choir program is grateful to Cragun's as the business has donated its space for the dinner show for years. The proceeds earned from the dinner will pay for the scripts and costumes for the show, used for scholarships and will support upcoming trips and activities that the choir students attend.
