Even if you hear it by playing a YouTube video through the tinny speakers built into your laptop, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem makes an overwhelming impression.
So much more overwhelming was it, then, to see the massive chorus and orchestra lined up on stage Sunday afternoon at the Kravis Center for a full-on performance of what many experts continue to think of as Verdi’s greatest opera. Joined by a fine quartet of operatic voices, the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra and a combined chorus of more than 100 voices gave a colossal, enormously enjoyable performance of this 1874 masterwork, and by doing so not incidentally kept the opera company in the public eye during a time of straitened budgets.
The audience, which murmured audibly, then applauded, when it saw all those musicians on stage, took some time to settle down, even after the music started, forcing conductor Bruno Aprea to restart the piece after its first few measures had been largely drowned out by coughing and chatter. But the course of the music was largely trouble-free after that.
The mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, one of the leading Verdian mezzos working today, was joined by soprano Angela Meade, tenor Carl Tanner and bass Morris Robinson for the solo quartet, which blended nicely at times of concord. Zajick and Meade had a fair amount of wide vibrato early on, though that evened out as the music progressed.
Zajick was particularly affecting in the opening of the Quid sum miser, one of the most beautiful passages in all Verdi, and in the Recordare, to which she gave the appropriate gentleness to match the words, which implore Jesus not to let the faithful to be lost. There is a quality of iron to Zajick’s voice that makes it formidable and distinctive, even when she was singing as part of the quartet.
Robinson, another veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, was especially impressive throughout, from the dramatic way he half-sobbed the “Mors” (Death) in the Mors stupebit, to the vividness with which he sang the Confutatis, and even in his take on the Lacrymosa, in which his voice had an intense, pleading character in the higher registers. It’s a big voice, no doubt, but it’s not sepulchral; it’s an agile voice that’s ideal for roles in which clarity of diction and expressivity are crucial.
Tanner, last season’s Moor in Otello, was at his best in the Ingemisco, where he could display the fine lyric quality of his voice to good advantage. He sang it in a highly personal way, not letting his voice ring out completely until the Statuens in parte dextra at the end, and the effect was most mo
ving; he sounded guilt-wracked and desperate, and in some ways this was the finest performance of the afternoon.
Meade’s first entrance in the Kyrie eleison was big and blooming, floating easily up to her As and Bs, helping carry the first moments of the piece into the realm of operatic epic. Although it was well-sung, her concluding Libera me struck me as somewhat careful, and could have used some more drama, being as it is a plea to God not to be cast into the abyss.
Aprea conducted with his customary fire and passion, a director who can be counted on to infuse every single bar of what he’s conducting with total commitment. The climactic cadences in this work were truly immense, with the enormous chorus singing full tilt, and the orchestra playing all out in passages such as the celebrated Dies irae (with double bass drums giving those famous afterbeats tremendous force). It was one of those rare times when the full capability of the Kravis was on display, and sounded like a house that naturally can host gigantic agglomerations of musicians.
The orchestra played beautifully for the most part, with the exception of the dicey massed-cello opening of the Offertorium, a treacherous passage that requires players to go from the very bottom of their instruments to the top rapidly, and end with melodic elegance. It was not in tune at the top, and never got there in the repeat passages, but this was a tiny blot on what was on the whole a stellar orchestral performance.
The chorus, too, made up of the company chorus, the Master Chorale of South Florida, Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches, Delray Beach Chorale and the Robert Sharon Chorale, never sounded overstuffed, an impressive accomplishment, and it was especially gratifying to hear such strong male singing, from the Te decet hymnus on.
All in all, a great afternoon at the opera. During last season’s presentations of the Beethoven Ninth, I wondered whether the Verdi Requiem might not be an even better use of this kind of performing force, and I think Sunday’s results put the answer to that question resoundingly in the affirmative. The only trouble is that there was only one performance; a second one would have given even more people a chance to enjoy a great opera in concert dress.
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The Palm Beach Opera presents two semi-staged performances of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice on Friday night and Sunday afternoon at the Kravis Center. The cast includes countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo as Orfeo, soprano Nadine Sierra as Euridice and mezzo Irene Roberts as Amor. Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range from $20-$125. Call 833-7888 or visit www.pbopera.org.