Vagaus triumphans

Amanda Forsythe made a triumphant return to Jordan Hall last night, delivering a world-class level “Armatae Face, Et Anguibus” that brought the house down. It was impressive. I sat there grinning at the luxury of having experienced *that* live while my friend rave about the amazing momentum she built and interaction with the orchestra to strengthen the ramping up of tension. (So this is the right place to mention she will be here again with a baroque band for a recital that i would miss (GRRRRRR), but i was very sure to pass on the information to my friend who is very enthusiastic to learn more, if she can get a ticket.)

But before “Armatae Face..”, she was already hogging the stage with her recitative phrasing and “communicative” skill. This is a very short write-up of my experience hearing Vivaldi “Juditha Triumphans” live for the first time.

As a *huge* (but recent) fan of the work, i and a crowd (that i gathered from the office) arrived at Jordan Hall to realize they ran out of booklets and there was no surtitles. By the end of the evening, the buzz is about the “woman in white coat” (Vagaus), with “the woman in blue doing a decent job..”. If I have to compose a narrative of the storyline following what I heard/saw, it would be:

“Starving, Holofernes descended down Juditha’s village begging for food to find the town sleeping peacefully to hammocky-swinging-soothing violins. Searching further, Holofernes arrived to find Juditha drowning in the low notes in her basement while Abra the maid cheerfully smiling at anything while mumbling to self. Holefernes offered Juditha a chair on which she launched several last gasps of high notes before flatlining, with Holefernes following right behind. Cause of death: lack of high notes and heft. Vagaus *charged* in, weaved her (his) swagger conquering all women to triumphant trumpets + drums.”

In the 2nd half, i switched place with my generous friend (was sitting on far left in 1st) and the orchestra came much more alive, am not sure if due to positioning or that they really woke up… The highlights for many of my friends are the various selections of quite exotic instruments: chalumeaux, mandolin, theorbo, lyra viol, organ, viola da gamba, recorder, baroque trumpets, as well as the combo of these with voices. I really enjoyed, for example, the combo of *3* theorbos with Vagaus, mandolin with Juditha, chalumeaux with Juditha. Not sure if i’m developing an “entitled” attitude now or what.. but I have 2 primary complaints:

1. I have a very big issue with the conducting. I was already a bit worried following Agrippina, and now, let’s just say i will prefer any other conductor for these Baroque vocal pieces. I have loved Maestro Pearlman in Beethoven and Händel’s Messiah, but left for home a bit “angry” last night. sorry. Especially in the first half, those 10-12 violins need more dynamics (more below) and a serious jolt of energy (tempo). And this is the first time I found the harpsichord playing dragging and interfering! (you don’t understand its function, it’s just there, running over the singers).
2. I don’t understand the casting of mezzos for the roles of Holofernes and Juditha. Through the night, we don’t get to hear these singers in the range of their strength. Flat-line is what i kept thinking, as they can’t go lower. Even if not flat-lined, there is so little wiggle room down there for musical expression to do justice to these beautiful arias. Adding to the issue is the “loud” violins mentioned in (1): Maestro Pearlman have almost all violins playing at their strength (lacking dynamics!) while drowning out the mezzos singing in their basement (where these types of voices are prone to be drowned out unless you have enough heft as few mezzos or any contralto should/would have.) On this note, with the format ABA, the 2nd “A” became a typical route of “wild” excursions up the octave into the singers’ optimal range, almost with little context/connection to anything they’re singing about.

I’m sorry for the complaint. I told my friend just before the performance that we have to keep in mind it’s a live performance, that we are not here to compare with what we “are used to hear” on such and such recording. But I think the performance in its own right needs more dynamics (conductor’s take), and the choice of singers in their optimal vocal strength to express the music would be a great bonus…

So, just 1 clip then, as i realized from last night that the orchestra is primarily string for most of the night, and kept wondering how you’re going to get more dynamics. Some tempi variation + varying intensity of the strings? Some “rocking” please! For example, like this?

I know it’s a live “recording”, but note the violins are not on top of the singers, they’re much stronger when the singers are not active… at intermission, one of my friends said to me: the singers are getting in the way of the orchestra! I know what he meant: the orchestra was taking over, letting the poor mezzos drowning almost so you can hear neither of them well. Another friend’s point was that there was somewhat a disconnection between the singers and the orchestra.. with Amanda Forsythe being the sole singer interacting with orchestra and engaging us (me). I know they recorded this, perhaps for radio broadcast later. It should be noted that the singers stood in front of the mic, so a broadcast can also be biased (same with youtube video above) in that you might hear the singers very well there, but it’s not necessary the case in the hall.