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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
May 1, 2004
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By Anna Carol Dudley
The San Francisco Early Music Society season has ended with a splash of
color. El Mundo's Saturday concert at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Berkeley was a celebration of Spanish music of the 17th and 18th centuries, from Spain and from the New World. El Mundo's director, Richard Savino, arranged and orchestrated a lively program, using three singers, three violinists and a dynamite rhythm section.
The program began with tonos humanos (secular songs). As instrumental
prelude, a chacona by Juan de Arañés was plucked by gambist William Skeen and baroque guitarist Savino and bowed by violinists Adam LaMotte and Zachary Carrettin, with Peter Maund providing the percussion. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane gave moving voice to a long lament, José Mar“n's “Aquella sierra nevada” (That snowy mountain). Soprano Jennifer Ellis then swung into Juan Hidalgo's “¡Ay, que si, Ay que no!” (Oh! but yes, Oh! but no), equally dark in theme +but brilliant and rhythmically lively. The two Jennifers sang a chacona by Arañés, ending with a polished castanet accompaniment provided by Lane.
A group of instrumental chaconas followed the duet. The chacona is a dance
form from Latin America, characterized by variations on a repeated chord
progression, which eventually evolved into the French chaconne. Savino
played one by Santiago de Murcia on baroque guitar, and Skeen followed with one by G.B.Vitali on cello. Carrettin and LaMotte joined the cello and
Savino's theorbo and guitar for a fantasia and chacona by Andrea
Falconiero.
The New World was represented by Act 1 from San Ignacio, a Jesuit mission opera by Domenico Zipoli, Martin Schmidt and indigenous sources. Ellis sang the title role, moving easily from a rich, full sound in slow tormented parts to a bright forward sound in fast sections with impatient or happy texts, and exhibiting an impressive command of highly florid passages. Lane also gave a variety of colors to her roles, singing an angel one moment and a dangerously beguiling devil the next. Both Jennifers got thoroughly into the drama between the devil and San Ignacio, the one treatening and the other shouting defiance (on pitch!). The saint won out in the end, aided by the capable support of soprano angel Mary Quinn, who rushed in claiming membership in a "flying squadron of angels." The second half of the program was a zarzuela, Salir el Amor del mundo (The exit of Love from the world), by Sebastián Durón. The zarzuela came into being at about the same time as Italian opera and was influenced to some degree by Italian style, but remains uniquely Spanish, and popular to this day. Spoken dialog is used in place of sung recitative (as in Mozart's Magic Flute and Broadway musicals), and the arias in the early zarzuelas follow the structure of coplas/estribillo (verses/refrain), rather than the later Italian da capo aria. The story concerns an attempt by Amor (Cupid) to shoot his arrows at the goddess Diana. She wants none of it, and other gods come to her aid — Apollo, Mars, and even Jupiter himself (he who has repeatedly been struck by Cupid's arrows). Some shepherds try to help by making a super-arrow, but Mars deflects it. So Love has to leave the world. (Somehow he got back in, but that's another story.)
Ellis sang the part of Amor, and Lane took the parts of Diana and the other gods. Quinn sang several parts and made a strong contribution to the many trios. Some recitative was sung, and the Jennifers showed themselves masters of recitative as well as aria, both attuned to the drama in the words, neither afraid to sound spiteful in a major argument. For this performance, the spoken dialog was replaced by several well-placed spoken narratives, delivered by Raymond Granlund, who also sang in the final chorus. In the zarzuela, as throughout the concert, the strong instrumental contribution enhanced the performance. A recitative might start with guitar, add cello, then add harpsichord (Cory Jamason). An aria might have a different combination of instruments on succeeding verses, or go all out with three violins (adding Ondine Young) and all the continuo forces plus percussion. In extended recitatives and verse songs, the thoughtful orchestration underlined meaning and kept the music fresh. The encore was a Seguidilla by José Nebra — a duet for the Jennifers, three violins, full continuo and percussion, and a tour de force for Lane, who sang many words very fast, played her castanets and kept some terrific dance moves going.
(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University [lecturer emerita] and director emerita of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)
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Jennifer Lane