Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius;
Sea Pictures. Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano; Stuart Skelton, tenor; David
Soar, bass; BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir
Andrew Davis. Chandos. $39.99 (2 SACDs).
Rob Kapilow: Chris Van Allsburg’s
The Polar Express; Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude McFuzz. Sung by Nathan Gunn, with
the Polar Express Children’s Choir (Polar);
sung by Isabel Leonard, with Olivia Lombardi as Gertrude (Gertrude); Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra. GPR. $19.99.
Nicola Porpora: Arias. Franco
Fagioli, countertenor; Academia Montis Regalis conducted by Alessandro De
Marchi. Naïve. $16.99.
A dream of death and beyond,
and one of the many moods of the ocean and those who encounter it, are paired
and performed beautifully on a new Chandos release of music by Elgar. The Dream of Gerontius gives a primarily
Catholic view of life’s end and what comes after (although its final portrayal
of Purgatory is not entirely orthodox). It is a sort of extended “death and
transfiguration,” using vocal lines to make the action clear and to guide
listeners through an abridged version of a poem by Cardinal (John Henry)
Newman. The poem is sufficiently reverent in a wholly conventional sense so
that the words are less meaningful to non-Catholics than they might be if the
text were more spiritually inclusive – but Elgar clearly responded to the poem
with emotional intensity that led him to create music that transcends his
chosen source. Whether The Dream of
Gerontius sustains adequately for its considerable length – an hour and
three-quarters – depends largely on the quality of the performance, and the one
led by Sir Andrew Davis is particularly fine. Stuart Skelton is especially
praiseworthy as Gerontius, nearly managing to make this typecast “old man” figure
into something more than a cardboard character through the sheer emotive power
of his singing and the sincerity with which he declaims the dream of a dying
man. Bass David Soar intones the lines of the Priest with appropriately dark
and polished tones, and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly makes a highly affecting
Angel by singing with what sounds like genuine concern and an otherworldly kind
of love toward the human she is charged with bringing from the mundane world,
to Heaven, and thence to Purgatory. A problem with The Dream of Gerontius is that it is so earnestly one-sided that it
gives almost no scope for drama, but what little exists – as in the two brief
choruses of quite non-threatening demons – is well-presented here. Indeed, the
choral and orchestral work is so fine that the music’s power and beauty come
through clearly whether or not a listener accepts or agrees with the argument
of the text. And this sacred work is very well complemented by the secular Sea Pictures, in which Connolly delivers
five songs of varying moods, to words by different poets, with understanding
and emotional resonance. Sea Pictures
has music more varied than that of The
Dream of Gerontius, with the ocean’s moods ranging from serenity to
storminess; and here too the playing of the orchestra rises to every occasion
within the cycle, painting in toto a
picture that has depth, beauty and strong emotional resonance – all captured in
particularly fine SACD sound.
The dreams are for the
youngest listeners rather than the oldest on a new GPR recording of two works
by Rob Kapilow, one based on Chris Van Allsburg’s moving Christmas dream/fable,
The Polar Express, and the other
taking off from a much lighter fantasy by Dr. Seuss, Gertrude McFuzz – a work that does, however, have a moral as clear
as Van Allsburg’s. This is a CD for families already familiar with the two
works that Kapilow sets, because the text is almost identical to that in the books
but, of course, does not have the pictures that render these two very different
works so intriguing and enthralling in printed form. Kapilow is especially
sensitive to Van Allsburg’s pacing: listeners can easily hear the places where
the composer moves from one page of the book to the next. The music is
supportive of the narration but also has a delightful character all its own. In
The Polar Express, for instance,
snatches of Christmas carols are woven into the musical tale, while in Gertrude McFuzz, little bits of
well-known tunes are included in a score that nicely characterizes the
participants – Gertrude’s Uncle Dake, for example, gets a jazzy beat, while
Gertrude herself is accompanied by rather whiny notes that neatly complement
her temper tantrums. The performers are all first-rate, not
over-intellectualizing any of the words but not talking down to the intended
audience, either. Nathan Gunn narrates with seriousness befitting that of an
older man looking back on childhood while retaining a sense of wonder and
communicating it to children, while Isabel Leonard offers bounce and brightness
and just enough snottiness to show a narrative disapproval of the demands of
Olivia Lombardi, who gets her comeuppance in typically gratifying and amusing Seussian
fashion. This CD is not inexpensive, considering the fact that it runs just 34
minutes and that CDs of books’ readings are sometimes included at no extra
charge within the books themselves. But the fine music and wholehearted
involvement of all the performers make the disc a very worthwhile seasonal
gift, especially for families that see it as a complement to The Polar Express and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (in
which Gertrude’s tale, and tail, appear).
It is primarily dreams and
dramas portrayed on the opera stage that Franco Fagioli brings vividly to life
on a new Naïve CD featuring a dozen arias for countertenor (originally for
castrato) by Nicola Porpora (1686-1768). Porpora is best known as the teacher
of famed castrato Farinelli and as an instructor of Haydn, Pergolesi and
Alessandro Scarlatti, but he was also in his time a very considerable composer
of opera seria, writing more than 50
operas in a lengthy career that spanned the years 1708 to 1760. Porpora’s arias
are quite difficult to perform, being filled with display elements such as
trills and coloratura passages and also demanding excellent legato when at their most serious and
melancholic. It is worth remembering that Baroque opera arias rarely advanced
the stage action: they were expressions of characters’ feelings, emotions and
motivations, with the action handled through recitative. This is one reason so
many composers engaged in self-borrowing – Handel is especially well-known for
plucking an aria from one of his works and plunking it down in another where
similar emotional expression is called for. What this means in performing
Porpora is that the technical demands must be placed at the service of the
emotional communication – as is not
the case in the much later bel canto
period, when technique alone can and does carry many singers through difficult
passages. Fagioli has a firm grasp of the emotive elements of these arias, and
although the specifics of the operas from which the arias are drawn are not
especially important, Fagioli fully understands the need to be as expressive as
possible in everything he does. The CD includes one aria from Ezio (1728), two from Semiramide riconosciuta (1729, revised
1739), one from Didone abbandonata
(1725), two from Meride e Selinunte
(1726), one from the oratorio Il verbo in
carne (1748), one from the cantata Il
ritiro (1735), two from Poliferno
(1735), one from Carlo il Calvo
(1738) and one from the cantata Vulcano
(1735). All skillfully evoke specific emotional states while presenting
considerable technical challenges to the performer – ones that Fagioli, ably
abetted by Academia Montis Regalis under Alessandro De Marchi, fully
understands and conquers. The dreams of the Baroque may not be those of today,
but performances like these keep them alive and meaningful even after hundreds
of years.
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