{"id":5847,"date":"2020-02-09T11:14:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T11:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=5847"},"modified":"2020-02-09T11:14:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T11:14:32","slug":"hastings-philharmonic-ensemble-orquesta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=5847","title":{"rendered":"Hastings Philharmonic \/ Ensemble OrQuesta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christ Church, St Leonards on Sea, Saturday 8 February 2020<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Marcio da Silva loves pushing the boundaries and last weekend brought us not only very rare early opera but a genuine attempt to stage them by candlelight within the vastness of Christ Church. Candlelit Christmases are normally a discrete compromise to allow the audience to see their song sheets even if there are a number of decorative candles close to the choir. This was something different. We were in near total darkness \u2013 no hope of reading the programme notes \u2013 while the shadows across the performing area raised effectively ghostly images as the story lines unfolded. This was often remarkably effective, though the use of dark costumes in the second half made the characters more difficult to see.<\/p>\n

All three of the works have specific spiritual underpinning. Caccini\u2019s L\u2019Euridice<\/em> \u2013 normally accepted as the first full opera \u2013 mirrors the concept of the resurrection, when Alexander Gebhard\u2019s movingly sung Orfeo persuades Pluto to return Euridice to life again. It is interesting that this version omits the normal \u2018no turning back\u2019 incidents which imply Orfeo\u2019s weakness, rather than his ability to stand up to the gods.<\/p>\n

Caccini\u2019s version of the story follows the Greek model where most of the action happens off stage and we hear more from Orfeo\u2019s friends than we do from the protagonists. This is even more obvious in Carisssimi\u2019s two brief oratorios Jonas<\/em> and Jephte. <\/em>Both are sung in Latin and rely heavily on a triple narrator and a more prominent chorus. Samuel Kibble had proved himself a fine Arcetro in L\u2019Euridice<\/em> but was somewhat at a loss during the long sections of narrative during Jonas. <\/em>Surprisingly Jephtha\u2019s daughter \u2013 finely sung by Ciera Cope \u2013 is given far more to do by Carissimi with little real focus on the emotional effect upon Jephtha himself. One only has to compare Handel\u2019s magnificent and heart-rending approach a century later to realise what is missing here.<\/p>\n

However, Carissimi makes up for this in the quality and depth of his choral writing. The final chorus brought us the best music of the evening and a startling hint of what was to come over the next century.<\/p>\n

The instrumental forces were as telling as ever, with the constant changes of texture and tone particularly impressive, bringing percussion for the peasants and the organ for the gods. Marcio da Silva was everywhere, singing, playing guitar, recorder and side drum. It was noteworthy that he trusts his fellow musicians enough to be able to leave the ensemble to themselves while he is singing or simply sorting out something off stage. This really is an ensemble working at its best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christ Church, St Leonards on Sea, Saturday 8 February 2020 Marcio da Silva loves pushing the boundaries and last weekend brought us not only very rare early opera but a genuine attempt to stage them by candlelight within the vastness … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5848,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions\/5848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}