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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
February 19, 2005
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By Anna Carol Dudley
Nicholas McGegan and the the
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
and chorus
brought Handel's operatic
oratorio "Samson" vividly to life
Saturday
night at the First Congregational
Church of Berkeley. Handel starts
his telling of the Biblical story
as Samson, weakened by Dalila's
betrayal, has been blinded and
put in chains. His friend Micah
asks
him which of his burdens is the
hardest to bear. It is his
blindness.
"Total Eclipse! No sun, no moon!
All dark amidst the blaze of
noon!"
With these words, Handel finds
his voice and the story really
begins.
And with these words, tenor Mark
Padmore movingly found his voice
and
set the stage, as did the
answering chorus: "Let there be
light!" It
is no accident that the blind
poet Milton was drawn to this
story.
His Samson Agonistes was
the basis of Handel's libretto
(adapted by
Newburgh Hamilton).
Samson, the scourge of the
Philistines, known for his
superhuman
strength, has succumbed to the
entreaties of Dalila, who worms
out of
him the secret of his strength:
his uncut hair. Reading his story
in
the book of Judges, one can see
how the Philistines found his
Achilles' heel. Dalila wasn't the
first woman to seduce him into
telling a secret. Brought low,
Samson bitterly bemoans his fate
and
rightly blames himself for the
moment of moral blindness which
has led
to his ruin.
Enter Samson's father, Manoa.
Jeff Fields was taken out of the
chorus
to sing this role, replacing the
ailing Sanford Sylvan. Those
who had been looking forward to
hearing Sylvan did not envy
Fields his
assignment; but not to worry: he
turned in a splendid performance,
fervent in his opening
recitatives, and in the aria,
"Thy glorious
deeds," alternately spot-on
virtuosic and deeply expressive.
When Samson sees how he has
failed his father, his people and
his God,
he is stirred to hurl defiance at
the Philistines and their god
— a
change of mood that Padmore made
thrilling in the thundering aria,
"Let not the God of Israel
sleep." The superb chorus brought
Act I to
a triumphant close, assuring
Samson that even in death he
would be
remembered for his strength and
not for his shame.
It is a tribute to the quality and depth of the Philharmonia chorus that it could produce such a capable soloist as Fields on short notice. And there were other chorus members who had brief and effective solo turns: soprano Helene Zindarsian and tenors Daniel Hutchings and Brian Thorsett. Act II is the dramatic centerpiece of this work. Dalila appears and tries to persuade Samson that he should put all this unfortunate business behind him and let her make him feel better. Lisa Saffer was a terrific Dalila, employing all manner of vocal and visual wiles as she sang her siren songs of "plaintive notes and amorous moan" and called on a chorus of virgins to second her with "hear her, hear the voice of love." "Life is not lost, tho' lost your sight; let other senses taste delight," sang Dalila, but Samson would have none of it. He lit into her: "I know thy warbling charms.. thy wiles." There followed a duet brilliantly woven by Handel and brilliantly sung: "Traitor to love / Traitress to love," and Dalila, defeated, left. The scene ended with a choral admonition against "female usurpation" ("keep the wife in awe"). It was a treat to sit in Berkeley watching the chorus sing these un-PC sentiments with straight faces. Nobody hissed or walked out. The next character to burst upon the scene was Harapha, a giant of the Philistine persuasion. David Pittsinger, a giant of a man possessed of a giant bass-baritone voice, made an electrifying entrance and continued to electrify through heated exchanges with Samson and a splendid rendition of "Honor and arms scorn such a foe." Disdaining to fight with a blind man, he prefers to make fun of him. Handel came through with another brilliant duet, and Padmore rose magnificently to the challenge. By now the dramatic action was so intense that one couldn't help noticing that Samson had a pretty good head of hair and Harapha had very little. There was a straw in the wind!
As the chorus of Israelites sang a powerful, heartfelt plea ("Hear, Jacob's God!"), Samson sat transfixed, clearly hearing a call to action. The chorus of the Philistine priests of Dagon (same chorus, different hats) answered with a confident "Song and Dance," and the act ended with the two choruses defying each other, sometimes in alternation and sometimes combined — a striking example of Handel's ingenious use of a hat-switching chorus. In a nice dramatic stroke, Samson and Manoa sang on one side of the stage with the Israelite chorus, and Dalila and Harapha on the other side sang with the Dagonites. As Act III began, Harapha was back to bid Samson to come to a Philistine festival. It was clear that the object was to humiliate Samson, who refused. Harapha/Pittsinger dispatched another big florid aria — "Presuming slave!" — and left in a huff. Samson, feeling his strength returning with his hair, listened intently to the chorus of Israelites as they sang "With thunder arm'd, great God arise; help, Lord, or Israel's champion dies." When Harapha returned with a final demand, Samson agreed to go. He sang a final aria — "Thus when the sun from's watry bed" — absurd words, lovely music, beautifully sung by Padmore, to the last "st" of "ghost" — then left the stage for good. The Israelites hoped for a miracle. The Philistines were heard partying, their chorus ending in a big laugh. Manoa, still hoping, sang a moving aria offering to be his son's eyes for the rest of his life. A "Symphony of Horror and Confusion" broke out in the orchestra, the Philistines were heard crying out and dying, and a messenger brought the news that Samson had brought an entire building down on all the Philistines and himself.
Samson's friend, Micah, was sung by Marietta Simpson. Throughout the evening, it was she who carried the story forward, sympathizing with and encouraging her friend. Her singing was noble and affecting. Here at the end of the story, she did her best singing of all: "Ye sons of Israel now lament... Great Samson lies, for ever, ever clos'd his eyes." The orchestra played a funeral march, featuring horns, flutes, organ and tympani. Manoa and the chorus sang Samson to rest. Lisa Saffer, as an Israelite woman, sang "Let the bright Seraphim" with trumpeter John Thiessen, and the chorus sounded Samson's praise "in endless blaze of light."
(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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Lisa Saffer
Marietta Simpson
Mark Padmore
David Pittsinger
Jeffrey Fields