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present at the creation
Mar. 30th, 2014 11:26 pmLast week, we went to the California Theatre to hear ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vgqn sing in the chorus for Carmina Burana. This week, we went to the California Theatre to hear her sing in the chorus for Haydn's The Creation. Different chorus (San Jose Symphonic Choir), different orchestra (Nova Vista Symphony), different conductor (chorus director Leroy Kromm).
Despite certain overlap in personnel, the chorus, orchestra, and conductor were not as high-class this week as last, and neither was the repertoire. I expect my high-toned friends will collapse of apoplexy when I say I consider Carmina Burana to be a superior work to The Creation, but I do. There are great 18th-century Biblical oratorios, most of them by Handel*, but this isn't one of them. I love most of Haydn's music, but I've never found his mature choral work to be inspired, and this is no exception.
Most of The Creation consists of a series of overlong recitatives, tedious solo arias, and congested contrapuntal choruses describing the six days of creation in Jacobean and Miltonic verse. Things pick up only in the final part when Adam and Eve come on stage. They sing a lovely duet praising God for what He's done, which also for the first time in the work finds something intelligent to do with the chorus. That our Adam and Eve were exceptionally fine soloists (Christian Pursell and Emma Rosenthal) helped. The others were good singers, too, but failed to conquer their material.
The chorus, when it had anything to do, was very fine in the women's sections, and solid in the bass, but weak and wayward in the tenor. The orchestra was frequently adequate but often conspicuously not.
Nevertheless I'm glad we went. It was a treat to see and hear a familiar face and voice from up there on the risers, and to hear what was good in the performance and work (and much was good), and also a treat to sit with friends, even though we moved to the far back in the second half to be able to duck out immediately at the end for another urgent musical appointment, of which I'll say more soon.
*And for a real treat, try Vivaldi's Judith, parts of which sound like Handel on acid.
vgqn sing in the chorus for Carmina Burana. This week, we went to the California Theatre to hear her sing in the chorus for Haydn's The Creation. Different chorus (San Jose Symphonic Choir), different orchestra (Nova Vista Symphony), different conductor (chorus director Leroy Kromm).Despite certain overlap in personnel, the chorus, orchestra, and conductor were not as high-class this week as last, and neither was the repertoire. I expect my high-toned friends will collapse of apoplexy when I say I consider Carmina Burana to be a superior work to The Creation, but I do. There are great 18th-century Biblical oratorios, most of them by Handel*, but this isn't one of them. I love most of Haydn's music, but I've never found his mature choral work to be inspired, and this is no exception.
Most of The Creation consists of a series of overlong recitatives, tedious solo arias, and congested contrapuntal choruses describing the six days of creation in Jacobean and Miltonic verse. Things pick up only in the final part when Adam and Eve come on stage. They sing a lovely duet praising God for what He's done, which also for the first time in the work finds something intelligent to do with the chorus. That our Adam and Eve were exceptionally fine soloists (Christian Pursell and Emma Rosenthal) helped. The others were good singers, too, but failed to conquer their material.
The chorus, when it had anything to do, was very fine in the women's sections, and solid in the bass, but weak and wayward in the tenor. The orchestra was frequently adequate but often conspicuously not.
Nevertheless I'm glad we went. It was a treat to see and hear a familiar face and voice from up there on the risers, and to hear what was good in the performance and work (and much was good), and also a treat to sit with friends, even though we moved to the far back in the second half to be able to duck out immediately at the end for another urgent musical appointment, of which I'll say more soon.
*And for a real treat, try Vivaldi's Judith, parts of which sound like Handel on acid.
