Israel in Egypt at NYU's Skirball Cultural Center, 5/12/10

Reviews

OPERA NEWS - AUGUST 2010

NEW YORK CITY

James Bagwell & The Collegiate Chorale
NYU's Skirball Cultural Center

5/12/10

The Collegiate Chorale appeared on May 12 in NYU's Skirball Center with an invigorating performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt under the lively, pointed direction of James Bagwell. Of all Handel's major oratorios, this 1739 work, drawing largely on the Books of Exodus and Psalms, depends most strongly on the choral contribution. The soloists tackle three intricate duets; soprano and tenor have an aria apiece and the alto two, but many of the solo passages last only a few bars until the chorus takes over.

Bagwell's arrayed forces did not match Victorian Crystal Palace proportions, but they made a mighty and a focused noise while maintaining good ensemble and admirably crisp diction. Entrances were clean, and the collective vocal energy never flagged. With such a numerous, powerful chorus, an early-music band clearly would not have worked. The players here came from the American Symphony. Harpsichord aside, there were modern instruments; the oboists and brass section played with distinction, as indeed did most of the players when heard in solo figurings. But together the violins and violas tended to make a muddier, heavier sound than this music (to my ears at least) warrants.

The half-dozen vocal soloists were all at home in the style and reasonably agile. The four most experienced singers — Sari Gruber, Brian Asawa, Rufus Müller and Robert Osborne — fielded more characterful, individual timbres than the younger pair (Megan Taylor's light, fleet soprano, graceful in her lone opportunity, and Ron Loyd's solid baritone) but unfortunately, due either to their cumulative experience or to colds all around, the quartet of veterans all exhibited trouble at the top of their compasses, with lunged-at or occluded notes. Gruber's timbral charm and musicality offset some of her upper-register problems. Asawa's rare NYC appearance found him not robust of tone but still dispensing pretty sound and shaping legato lines. Müller, whose tone cleared some after intermission, showed real trills and incisive phrasing (though Osborne's diction proved best of all).

Aaron Ryhne designed a plausible series of projected still and video images coordinated with the texts — clouds, waves (which seem the standard fallback for video use in classical music today) and lightning, plus Egyptian hieroglyphs and frog silhouettes. Unfortunately the contrast was not sharp enough to make the images consistently decipherable. Lighting problems also undermined the benefit of the producers' having distributed printed texts: only in a few isolated spots in the auditorium could they be seen during the concert. This evening's principal component — Bagwell's Collegiate Chorale — should surely continue to give New York audiences Handel oratorios . Excellent singers are available; with some top-flight casting, there's a local Handel public that will buy tickets. On to Solomon and Jephtha, please!  

DAVID SHENG