Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra presents a revival of Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Gloria di Primavera (the Glory of Spring)
2015-10-07
Bing Concert Hall
Stanford University, 327 Lasuen St, Stanford, CA
7:30 PM, Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725): La gloria di primavera (the Glory of Spring) (1716)

Scheduled to start at 6:45 PM, I arrive a few minutes late, about 6:49 PM, to hear Rachael Myrow, KQED Silicon Valley correspondent, speak with Nic McGegan about his 30th anniversary with Philharmonia Baroque and the significance of performing La Gloria di Primavera during this milestone in his career. The talk ends 7:13 PM.

[7:m PM tuning, waiting, applause at entrance of soloists and McGegan] [7:3m PM lights down]

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry! [At some point I'll try and match my timing notes to the libretto, but until I find motivation to take on that task, I'll provide the following, nearly worthless outline of the show.]

Introduction and Nos. 1-11. Celebration of the Noble Birth

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    Nos. 12-19. Reflections on the Past (War) and Present (Peace)
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    No. 20-21. Proposal of the Contest and the Invocation of Jove
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    [set ends 8:31 PM]

[8:50 PM lights down]

Introduction and Nos. 22-24. Further Invocation and Arrival of Jove

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   Nos. 25-30. In Praise of Jove
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   Nos. 31-40. The Contest of the Seasons
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    Nos. 41-44. Resolution of the Contest
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    Nos. 45-56. Benedictions for the Future Empire
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    [show ends 10:12 PM]

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

• Stephen Bard: oboe;
• Elizabeth Blumenstock: violin;
• David Daniel Bowes: principal viola;
• Phoebe Carrai: cello;
• Maria Ionia Caswell: viola;
• Michael DuPree: oboe;
• Lisa Grodin: violin;
• Paul Hale: cello;
• Fred Holmgren: trumpet;
• Robert Howard: cello;
• Katherine Kyme: principal second violin;
• Tyler Lewis: violin;
• Nicholas McGegan: harpsichord, conductor, music director;
• Carla Moore: violin;
• Maxine Nemerovski: violin;
• Ellie Nishi: viola;
• Gonzalo X. Ruiz: oboe;
• Marc Schachman: principal oboe;
• Stephen Schultz: principal flute;
• Andrew Schwartz: principal bassoon;
• Sandra Schwartz: violin;
• William Skeen: principal cello;
• Timothy Spears: contrabass;
• Noah Strick: violin;
• David Tayler: principal lute;
• John Thiessen: principal trumpet;
• Kate van Orden: bassoon;
• Hanneke van Proosdij: principal harpsichord;
• Jolianne von Einem: violin;
• Lisa Weiss: violin, concertmaster;
• Aaron Westman: viola;
• Gabrielle Wunsch: violin;
• Alice Yang: violin;
• Kristin Zoernig: principal contrabass;
• Daniel Zuluaga: lute.

• Jennifer Ashworth: soprano vox;
• John Bischoff: bass vox;
• David Kurtenbach: tenor vox;
• Katherine McKee: alto vox;
• Heidi Waterman: soprano vox.

• Diana Moore: mezzo-soprano vox, as Spring;
• Suzana Ograjenšek: soprano vox, as Summmer;
• Nicholas Phan: tenor vox, as Winter;
• Clint van der Linde: countertenor vox, as Autumn;
• Douglas Williams: baritone vox, as Jove.

Following a moderately stressful commute-time drive, I arrived at Bing a few minutes into the pre-show talk, slipping into an aisle seat in the 5th row. As summarized above, this part of the event consisted chiefly of McGegan relating various bits of humor and wisdom collected across his long career. While I'm glad I made it, in retrospect, it might have been wiser on my part to have passed on the opportunity (in order to let this evening commuter traffic thin out a bit), since the talk offered very little information regarding tonight's program. Oh well, it's hard to guess the right choice in advance, and it never hurts to be early!

Anyways, after a short break, I took my seat in the stage right terrace to enjoy part one of the show. In a first for my experience at Bing, the orchestra was seated at floor level in the center of the stage, while the outer concentric rings of the stage were raised up about four or five feet high – perhaps to allow the soloists and chorus to project their voices all the better? It certainly served to focus visual attention on the soloists. Since the work was performed without theatrics (save for a few glances or emotional gestures), I'm inclined to think appearances had nothing to do with this layout.

On the whole, I enjoyed the first part of the show, though with only a spare outline rather than a proper libretto, it was quite impossible to make any sense in the dramatic passage of the piece. Probably should have spent more time trying to learn Italian! Supertitles (summarizing the lyrics in English) were projected high at the front and rear of the hall, but both positions were awkward for me, since the performers were straight ahead and down while the titling was up high and hard to right or left. Still, no great loss there – the translations of the lyrics offered stultifying simplicity, and after the first few tunes, I did my best to ignore them, except as a way of marking my place or denoting repeats (as those were signaled by the absence of titling).

The performance of the singers and musicians was certainly of high calibre, but by set break I was beginning to tire of the repetitive patterns of the work: an instrumental section (short or long, depending on dramatic placement with respect to the singing), recitatives offering platitudes about the merits of the royal house, songs expounding the same – almost always offered with lengthy repeats (snoozing the first time? No worry, here it comes again!). And loop! My wild guess is that Scarlatti had been charged to deliver a work of a particular time span, and so busied things up in a half dozen ways from here to Sunday in order to meet that directive. It probably worked great for a noble clientele sleeping off a nine-course feast, but for me? – not so great.

Break offered a nice chance to go visit with my buddy Garth. Although blessed with great seats (second row center!), he complained that there was a hummer on his right. I sympathized. About the only thing worse than someone humming along to the tunes is that God-awful feedback from someone with a maladjusted hearing aid. I'd had idle thoughts about sneaking into the front to sit with Garth for the second half, but dropped that idea once I heard his complaints. I had no such issue with sitting up on the side. Better to stick with the known good!

The second half of the show unraveled more or less the same as the first, only longer, and by the end of the show, I was ready to bolt. I'm glad that Nic and his crew had the drive and determination to revive this work from centuries of neglect, and I'm glad to have witnessed this first revival performance, but overall, I felt as stuffed as if I'd eaten at a gourmet restaurant that serves 6,000 calorie meals. Too much of everything isn't always just enough, as the soul of wit lies in brevity. The Philharmonia Baroque's performance of Alessandro Scarlatti's La Gloria di Primavera might have been an artistic triumph of musical archaeology, but too much of a good thing wears heavily on the soul.

Naturally, revival of a work after the neglect of a couple hundred years rest is newsworthy, so plenty of reviewers sought to pen their thoughts. So far, I've found the following three bits of commentary on the four performances from this run, no doubt others have been posted hither or yon on the less traveled corners of the Internet:

• Joshua Kosman reported his opinions from his usual perch at SFGate
• Georgia Rowe posted her thoughts about the Berkeley performance on the San Jose Mercury News site.
• Steve Winn posted a complimentary review of the Herbst Theatre performance on SFCV.

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