Shoes, Spats, Timpani & Handel's Israel In Egypt
Saturday, August 10, 2013
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| José Verstappen |
It was and Early Music Festival 2013
production with a much enlarged and reinforced Pacific Baroque Orchestra and
the Early Music Vancouver Vocal Ensemble, an unusual 25-member chorus filled
with stars in all registers.
My companion, designer Graham Walker and I
wanted to be close so we could enjoy the subtleties of the voices of the
star-studded cast of singers like Suzie LeBlanc, Shannon Mercer, sopranos,
Reginald L. Mobley and Laura Pudwell altos, Colin Blazer, Charles Daniels, tenors,
Tyler Duncan, Sumner Thompson, baritones, and Robert Macdonald, bass.
We also
wanted to see the furious ballet performance that is the style of Musical director
Alexander Weimann. We were not disappointed!
Our seats gave us a bit more simply because
my nose was at the same height as the stage floor. The singers were looming over us and each
voice came loud, clear and separate.
I also noticed their shoes. One player,
Nate Helgeson on bassoon was the only person in the whole ensemble with
brown shoes. Viola player Elly Winer was wearing beautiful black dessert boots.
The exquisitely gowned Suzy LeBlanc sang better than ever perhaps because she
felt most comfortable being barefoot.
The most unusual combination of talent,
panache and style was alto Reginald L. Mobley who happened to be of the
opposite sex of the other and well known alto, Laura Pudwell (who once played
the male Emperor Nero in a previous Early Music Vancouver production of Claudio
Monteverdi’s L'Incoronazione di Poppea). For those who know there is no
conflict above. Reginald L. Mobley is a baritone who sings in falsetto. He is a
countertenor. You can never really taste your Handel at his authentic best unless there
is a countertenor in the mix. I can only surmise that Mobley’s presence on
Wednesday evening was the fact that Early Music Vancouver has changed from the
very able hands of “I always wear Birkenstocks” retiring (Sept.1, 2013) José Verstappen to that of Matthew White who just
happens to be one of those baritones that sings in a falsetto.
Mobley’s countertenor
voice is one of the most natural and sweet I have heard in a long time. I had
to keep myself from going beyond smiling as Mobley was dressed in a black suit
and his shoes were covered by white spats. The last time I ever saw spats they
were being worn by Scrooge McDuck.
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| Matthew White |
While all the other
singers were content to face us with their librettos in neat black notebooks,
Mobley had a black Asus tablet. I am a fan of the man as of right now.
It was funny and yet he sang so well seeing the man in spats with his Asus tablet singing:
Their land brought forth frogs, year, even in their king's chambers.
It was funny and yet he sang so well seeing the man in spats with his Asus tablet singing:
Their land brought forth frogs, year, even in their king's chambers.
I could rant and rave
of the new, just-purchased baroque timpani, ably played by blonde faux-Mohawked
Ed Reifel. I could tell you that they resembled the instruments that Taras
Bulba’s soldiers played before killing and piling up the skulls of their
vanquished enemies, but then I have. There were three trombones, a big one, a
middle sized one and a tiny one played by Catherine Motuz, Peter Christensen and
Trevor Dix and two natural trumpets (no valves, very difficult to master)
played by Kris Kwapis and Alexis Basque. I could go on and on. It was a superb
concert, with lots of ballistic thanks to the timpani, but the best moment of the night was in Part III, Moses Song when in a
duet, baritones, Sumner Thompson and Tyler Duncan sang:
The Lord is a man of
war: Lord is His name. Pharoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the
sea; his chosen captains also drowned in the Red Sea.
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| Alexander Weimann |
Those lyrics, Handel’s
music and those two voices with beautiful diction (tenor Colin Balzer is
another with perfect diction, especially in German) never got any better. I
must point out that I am warming up, even thrilled, to listen to the recitatives
performed (a good word as he acts them with gusto) by tenor Charles Daniels.
I can only point out that I had one big disappointment, I never heard the line:
“Let my people go.”
José Verstappen is retiring after 34 years of working hard and doing almost everything (designing, building harpsichords, obtaining much needed funding, helping get a new baroque organ, all which left him with no budget to buy real shoes). Imagine when he started, the Connaught Bridge, with its centre span of wooden planks linked downtown Vancouver across False Creek! He now leaves us with the knowledge that at least we in Vancouver can be lucky to boast and revel at the fact that very few ever get to see Israel In Egypt performed live. Thank you.
My friend Graham Walker is mine of information on all things baroque. It seems that Israel in Egypt was the first ever recorded performance.José Verstappen is retiring after 34 years of working hard and doing almost everything (designing, building harpsichords, obtaining much needed funding, helping get a new baroque organ, all which left him with no budget to buy real shoes). Imagine when he started, the Connaught Bridge, with its centre span of wooden planks linked downtown Vancouver across False Creek! He now leaves us with the knowledge that at least we in Vancouver can be lucky to boast and revel at the fact that very few ever get to see Israel In Egypt performed live. Thank you.
On Friday 29th June 1888, from 2pm, a performance of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt was captured on a number of wax cylinder recordings. This performance was part of the trienniel Handel Festivals mounted in the UK. They were recorded from the press gallery in Crystal Palace by Edison-representative Colonel Gouraud, as a way to test and show off Edison's phonograph. Three of these cylinders still survive. The conductor was Sir August Manns, conducting an orchestra of some 500 musicians and a choir of over 4,000 voices, in front of an audience of 23,722 people. These are the earliest deliberate recordings of music known to exist (earlier recordings from the 1870s are considered lost). Fortunately these can be played back at a quite definite pitch, as we know the pitch of the Crystal Palace organ at this time. Unfortunately, the recordings are in very poor shape, audibly speaking. You are going to have a very hard time grappling with the sound, and trying to make out anything. Each cylinder contains a number of tracks. This is what you are hearing: Edison's 1888 phonograph recordings
