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Taking opera to church
AVA's "Jubilate': Religion as opera
Tom Purdom
The Academy of Vocal Arts ended Jubilate, its annual program of religious music, with a Hallelujah Chorus that included one of the most impressive feats of musicianship I've seen.
AVA is primarily an opera school, dedicated to training advanced students with voices capable of filling opera halls. And they did, indeed, fill Holy Trinity with all the vocal splendor that any Handelian could wish for. But the most spectacular aspect of the piece was the placement of the singers.
Conductor David Lofton positioned his 25 vocalists in front of the orchestra, with the women on his left side and the men on his right. That is, he put them where they couldn't see him conduct, yet they still managed to execute all the precisely timed entrances and interactions that the Hallelujah Chorus requires.
After the concert one of our local opera experts, Susan Gould, reminded me that opera singers frequently must sing from stage positions where they can't see the conductor. Nevertheless, I was still impressed. These singers had embellished a great choral work with a high-wire act comparable to the rousing feats of dexterity we expect from violinist and pianists. A single mistake could have turned the whole grand finale into a grand disaster.
My repetitious notes
Jubilate tapped into one of the richest segments of the Western classical tradition and presented it in a variety show format, the better to showcase AVA's students. Fourteen of the 21 selections were solos, and most of the rest were duets.
For a while I made notes about the quality of the students' voices, but I stopped when I realized I was writing the same words over and over. All possessed strong operatic voices, capable of seducing you with melody, and all hit the big notes that evoke excited applause from audiences.
The students' operatic training influenced the whole evening. The singers enhanced their effectiveness by performing as if they'd constructed characters who were singing their piece. In some cases, such as Verdi's Ave Maria from Otello, they actually were singing opera solos.
How preachers sound
In the pieces taken from liturgical works, such as masses, they sang as if they were playing an operatic character who was conducting a religious service. Tenor Nelson Ebo delivered the assertions in Hummel's Alleluia like someone who knows exactly how a Baptist preacher should sound.
In performances of oratorios and masses, the singers usually perform with the score in their hands. But AVA's soloists followed opera practice and sang from memory— a bit of extra work that freed their hands and helped them exercise their acting skills.
The other major ingredient in a program like this is the quality of the selections. Lofton assembled a parade of well-chosen pieces that ranged from Bach to the contemporary British composer John Rutter. He varied moods and types of voices with a showman's feel for the importance of variety and pace.
A Saint- Saëns find
The evening's big find was a three-piece sequence taken from the Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël. Saint-Saëns's setting of "Arise now, Daughters of Zion," ended the first half of the concert with a chorus that melded French grace with Handelian vigor— an irresistible combination.
I'm certain I've never heard the Oratorio de Noël before, nor can I recall having seen an announcement that it was being performed. If the rest of it sounds as good as Lofton's selections, some enterprising music impresario should schedule the whole work soon.
AVA is primarily an opera school, dedicated to training advanced students with voices capable of filling opera halls. And they did, indeed, fill Holy Trinity with all the vocal splendor that any Handelian could wish for. But the most spectacular aspect of the piece was the placement of the singers.
Conductor David Lofton positioned his 25 vocalists in front of the orchestra, with the women on his left side and the men on his right. That is, he put them where they couldn't see him conduct, yet they still managed to execute all the precisely timed entrances and interactions that the Hallelujah Chorus requires.
After the concert one of our local opera experts, Susan Gould, reminded me that opera singers frequently must sing from stage positions where they can't see the conductor. Nevertheless, I was still impressed. These singers had embellished a great choral work with a high-wire act comparable to the rousing feats of dexterity we expect from violinist and pianists. A single mistake could have turned the whole grand finale into a grand disaster.
My repetitious notes
Jubilate tapped into one of the richest segments of the Western classical tradition and presented it in a variety show format, the better to showcase AVA's students. Fourteen of the 21 selections were solos, and most of the rest were duets.
For a while I made notes about the quality of the students' voices, but I stopped when I realized I was writing the same words over and over. All possessed strong operatic voices, capable of seducing you with melody, and all hit the big notes that evoke excited applause from audiences.
The students' operatic training influenced the whole evening. The singers enhanced their effectiveness by performing as if they'd constructed characters who were singing their piece. In some cases, such as Verdi's Ave Maria from Otello, they actually were singing opera solos.
How preachers sound
In the pieces taken from liturgical works, such as masses, they sang as if they were playing an operatic character who was conducting a religious service. Tenor Nelson Ebo delivered the assertions in Hummel's Alleluia like someone who knows exactly how a Baptist preacher should sound.
In performances of oratorios and masses, the singers usually perform with the score in their hands. But AVA's soloists followed opera practice and sang from memory— a bit of extra work that freed their hands and helped them exercise their acting skills.
The other major ingredient in a program like this is the quality of the selections. Lofton assembled a parade of well-chosen pieces that ranged from Bach to the contemporary British composer John Rutter. He varied moods and types of voices with a showman's feel for the importance of variety and pace.
A Saint- Saëns find
The evening's big find was a three-piece sequence taken from the Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël. Saint-Saëns's setting of "Arise now, Daughters of Zion," ended the first half of the concert with a chorus that melded French grace with Handelian vigor— an irresistible combination.
I'm certain I've never heard the Oratorio de Noël before, nor can I recall having seen an announcement that it was being performed. If the rest of it sounds as good as Lofton's selections, some enterprising music impresario should schedule the whole work soon.
What, When, Where
Academy of Vocal Arts: Jubilate! Religious music by Bach, Verdi, Mendelssohn et al. Shelley Jackson, Alexandra Maximova, Chloe Moore, Jesse Nguenang, Marina Costa-Jackson, Youna Jang, Sydney Mancasola, sopranos; Margaret Mezzacappa, Chrystal E. Williams, Kristina Lewis, mezzo-sopranos; Mackenzie Whitney, William Davenport, Mo El Zein, Dominick Chenes, Nelson Ebo, tenors; Zachary Nelson, Stephen Barchi, Steven LaBrie, baritones; Musa Ngqungwana, bass-baritone. AVA Opera Theater Orchestra, Igor Szwec concertmaster; David Antony Lofton, conductor. December 2, 2012 at Holy Trinity Church, Rittenhouse Square. (215) 735-1685 or www.avaopera.org.
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