Classically Speaking

I guess when it comes to opera, I’m more of a purist than I thought.

The semi-staging of La Boheme by the WV Symphony was well sung, but to my taste, not well presented.

I have a degree in theatre and I’ve sung or worked on about 20 operas. I see opera as the ultimate theatrical production, using all the arts: vocal and instrumental music, drama, art, dance (although the ballets are now more often omitted either in composition or performance).

I have no philosophical problem with resetting the work in another era, and welcome the occasional “rehearsal” attire and/or minimal set and props.

While I did have some problems with the costuming (I didn’t care for the jeans, and I recognized some attire of chorus friends), the minimal set and props didn’t bother me at all.

What did bother me was the distraction of the orchestra on stage. Opera is all about the vocal music and on-stage drama. I know; some of the drama is a little hard to swallow. I mean, who admits to everlasting love ten minutes after meeting?

Boheme is filled with many small, private moments between the loving couples and soliloquies. You simply can’t have that with a full orchestra on stage behind them.

I know that Puccini’s music is lush and enticing, but the orchestra over-shadowed the vocalists in many of the climaxes, and was not in sync with the singers in others.

The singer should be free to express the music at his or her pace during a performance. I know there were monitors, but certainly the vocalists could not have felt like they were in control of tempi or expression. An orchestra in the pit allows the conductor to face the singer, and therefore provide proper accompaniment.

I’m sorry, but the opera orchestra belongs in the pit. They could still have performed the action in the same manner, just concentrated it all downstage.

BTW - In real life, Marcello and Musetta are husband and wife. Makes for nice chemistry.

Editor’s Note: Agree? Disagree? The West Virginia Symphony blog is inviting people who attended the opera to submit their own reviews. Or you can leave a comment here. 

 Gimme that ol’ time religion...

That isn’t a phrase I use too often, and for theological reasons, I won’t expound upon. If it wasn’t for a recent CD that found its way into my mailbox this month; Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing , I would bend my ear to newer, fresher perspectives.

Come Thou is a collection of American folk hymns and spirituals performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, recorded in May, 2008 at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City under the direction of Mack Wilberg.

As a child, I grew up visiting my grandmother who lived up the street from my home and she was a regular viewer of the MTC. I can remember she would have Billy Graham on the radio and the Choir on the tube. Our family vacation even took us to see the Tabernacle in the 1960s and '70s.

The 1980s found me as a Top-40 college radio DJ by day and a member of the college concert choir by night, while listening to the burgeoning Jesus-music, contemporary Christian music of the period.

My classical music background was growing as well; dating music majors, performing in the Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, and the occasional P.D.Q. Bach choral underground performance.

Grownup life, however, pulled me away from such a rich and varied experience in order to keep up with my kids' musical tastes, modern church life and my own musical escapism.

What a wonderful surprise to land this album.

Come Thou is a touch of angelic grandeur in a revival tent. It blends the hope of the spiritual with the profound theology of hymn writers like Isaac Watts, John Newton and Will L. Thompson.

While the presence of  the orchestra would seem to place it firmly in a concert setting; as opposed to what I’m accustomed (piano, organ, guitars and drums in my home church), having the fullness of the orchestral sound transports me at best, to a holy place or at least a simpler time.

The Mack Wilberg and Moses Hogan arrangements capture the hope and faith of previous generations, at the same time it brings it to an era of iPods. Even for my wife, who was familiar with Alison Krauss’ performance of "Down to the River to Pray" from the Coen Brother’s film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, the MTC recording brought tears to her eyes and I suspect will be soon worn off the disk.

Come Thou is a wonderful offering that crosses that divide between an appreciation for a classical interpretation of American folk-religious music and the spirituality that is sometimes lacking from most professional orchestras and choruses.  Not bad considering they're an all-volunteer chorus and orchestra.