View: Next message | Previous message Next in topic | Previous in topic Next by same author | Previous by same author Previous page (April 1999, week 1) | Back to main OPERA-L page Join or leave OPERA-L Reply | Post a new message Search Options: Ê Chronologically | Most recent first Proportional font | Non-proportional font ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 21:20:19 +0000 Reply-To: "H.E.Elsom" Sender: Discussion of opera and related issues From: "H.E.Elsom" Subject: St John Passion, St John's Smith Square, 2Apr99 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" John Mark Ainsley Evangelist David Wilson-Johnson Jesus Emma Kirkby, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies Stephen Layton Conductor Polyphony, Canzona Even though I have no intellectual commitment to Christianity, and it has little emotional hold on me these days, the passion narrative still works for me. Especially as a reminder of pain and despair that prepares the way for the sudden uplifting beauty of the day when spring kicks in and the world briefly seems reborn. There is also a more problematic but still powerful message in the passion that someone who suffers cruelty and humiliation is not a failure, but can be glorified by it. The St John Passion works particularly for me, educated as a catholic, because it is the epitome of the counter-counter reformation, the reformed churches' attempt to match the intellectual and emotional pull of catholicism's baroque art. The focus on Christ's wounds, explored through extended analogies with the natural world, is straight out of the Spiritual Exercises. Though the Lutheran tradition substitutes chorales for individual reflection, making the experience of a performance of a passion less introspective and much more communal than catholic meditation. The choir Polyphony and and the orcehstra Canzona, both run by the conductor Stephen Layton, are among the best baroque bands in England, neck-and-neck with The sixteen. They gave an impeccable, and moving, performance. The singers were a mixed lot, generally in the English style though not painfully so. Emma Kirkby warbled sweetly, which is great for the graceful dance of Ich folge dir gleichfalls, but slightly inadequate for the more sombre aria at the crucifixation. Catherine Wyn-Rogers was in the traditional English contralto mould, slightly pedestrian at times, but very moving in Es ist vollbracht. Neal Davies occasionally had problems with his German pronunciation. He somehow lost the focus of the beautiful arioso Betrachte, meine Seel', which links Christ's wounds and the beauty of nature. But James Gilchrist, who looks like a dim-but-nice young man, sang the following aria on the same theme with electrifying intensity. His tone is a little less than polished, but his singing is glorious and expressive in this music. John Mark Ainsley as the Evangelist was the opposite to Gilchrist, all mannered and smooth, very English. I can see the comparison with Pears, who was a superb John Evangelist, but Ainsley lacks the sense of excitement, even danger, that Pears had -- you often thought his voice was about to crack, either from taking vocal risks or from emotion. Ainsley also lacks the theatrical outwardness, verging on ham, that a John Evangelist needs. His runs in "geisselte", the John Evangelist's greatest moment, were anxious and confused rather than controlled agony. David Wilson Johnson was superb, theatrical but contained and dignified as Jesus. In tonight's heart-breaking news film of Kosovan refugees in the pouring rain at the Macedonian border, a man carrying a tree trunk through the crowd greatly resembled the traditional image of Christ carrying the cross. Regards, Helen H.E. Elsom he@helsom.demon.co.uk http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main OPERA-L page ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Powered by LISTSERV(R)] Back to the [CataList - online list search] LISTSERV home page at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU.