Church music (yes, again!)

The Standing Room talks about leaving a church job after a long period of time. I have been a professional church singer since I was 16 (no prizes for knowing how long ago that was) and as I contemplate some pretty drastic changes in my life, I wonder if that part of it will continue.

There wasn't a lot of church music in my youth. I grew up going to a Catholic Church held mass in a gym and had no choir per se or regular organist. The music I mostly heard there was usually provided a group of teenagers playing guitars (thank you Vatican II). I developed a love of opera early and I wax poetic about the Saturday afternoons when, for $25 dollars a week, alone in the church hall, I would set up the chairs and play the Metropolitan Opera Saturday broadcasts on my small portable radio. Often I'd sing along, much to the amusement of our pastor who'd drop by on occasion ( luckily he was an opera lover too). Apart from that, that was the extent of my musical involvement in that church.

It was only in high school, when I was hired to sing in a local church choir (and my first experience with Protestant worship) did I realize much of what I was missing. In music school I became keenly aware of the musical education that many of my colleagues had experienced growing up with an active church choir program and that I was lacking. While singing in several church choirs in Indiana, I got a glimpse of the kind of youth choir and music program that I wished I'd had.

That is why I'm so adamant about maintaing the quality of church music. The church where I'm currently singing has always had a high quality music program. That is why I reacted in horror when a few years ago they introduced a contemporary music worship service. It was advertised as being God with bongos. Happily that died a quiet and unlamented death, but it underlines the important of good quality music in the church and high quality and active youth programs. In the days when schools in the US are lack music education programs, this is often the best opportunity to challenge youth with good music. I've recently been looking at the composition of church music programs throughout the country and I've been very encouraged by the number of active youth programs and graded choirs. But as in all things, we must not become complacent. We must look to the future and find new ways to expand and enrich opportunities. I believe firmly that quality religious music is an integral part of the worship experience (there wouldn't be such a vast literature if it wasn't) and enriching that experience we have the opportunity to grow spiritually, intellectually and musically.

From strength to strength

Placido Domingo continues to amaze. He is a performer of staggering proportions, with voice, vigour and excitement of a performer much younger than his 64 years. The first act of last night's Metropolitan Opera Die Walküre was full of excitement and thrills, the type to set chills down your spine. Sparks flew between Katarina Dalayman (a beautiful and very feminine Sieglinde) and Domingo as well as between the stage and Valery Gergiev in the pit. The temperature may have cooled a bit in the second act, but it was a thrilling performance.

Yesterday was a full day for me, starting with the Met Guild luncheon honoring Montserrat Caballé. There was a beautiful film about her career and some nice speeches as well as performance by the wonderful (and very funny) Deborah Voigt. The food wasn't good, but the afternoon was nice and enjoyable.

Riccardo Muti did show up last week and led some powerful performances of the Liszt Faust Symphony (with Thomas Moser as his eloquent and lyrical soloist) and Goffredo Petrassi's Coro dei morti. He is a conductor who scoops you into his world and pulls you into the music. I found the Petrassi piece, for men's chorus, three pianos, brass and percussion, very effective. Less effective, I'm afraid was the maestro's request that we meditate at the end of the piece. At Thursday night's performance a cell phone went off and on Friday it was coins falling during the extended diminuendo. But most of all I dislike a musician telling us how we should react to a piece. I think the power of a performance and the music should do that.

Still, it was a persuasive and beautiful evening. Viva Muti, and viva Domingo!

Service music

Prima la musica, poi le parole, whose wonderful blog I read and enjoy daily, and who has kindly linked to me, has provided extensive information about the music at the Blessing ceremony of Charles and Camilla.

I was quite taken with the Grentchaninov piece that was sung by the wonderful Ekaterina Semenchuk. Apparently I've seen her at the Met in War and Peace. If you look at the size of the cast list, you might understand why I didn't remember, but I really want to hear her again. I was quite moved by her singing in the blessing service.

All of the music for the service was well-chosen, something for which I'm particularly grateful. As a professional church musician for over 25 years, I'm particularly sensitive to this and do continually worry about it. A pastor friend of mine referred to music as the pillow on which the diamond of the word sits. My analogy would be slightly different. I view music as the light that shines on the diamond. It further illuminates the word and lets you see it in different ways.

I don't think of sacred music as entertainment, although much of it can be entertaining. I think good sacred music should cause the listener to reflect, to meditate and to consider. The text is important, but so is the inspiration behind the music. I also think, that like a good sermon, sacred music should challenge and disturb. Sometimes it is not easy, but neither are the questions that faith and religion pose. Above all, it should cause us to think.

And that ends our sermon for today.

The right idea?

I've never bought into the idea of "crossover". While there are a few artists who can manage outside of their primary genre (Eileen Farrell for one), most attempts by opera singers to sing more "popular" music just end up sounding cheesy or ridiculous. And (as I've said at least once before) artists like Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, admirable as they might be in one genre, just aren't classical artists.

Peter Gelb, who is shortly to take over the Metropolitan Opera, obviously thinks otherwise (as one can read in this speech). Which of course frightens those of us who patronize that institution. Happily, good news comes from the recent Sony/BMG merger. Gilbert Hetherwick, who will be running the new classical label "Sony BMG Masterworks" thinks that classical can be profitable and without the crutch of crossover. In the article he states:

It's just a question of recording the right repertory, marketing it convincingly and applying the right discipline. And in my view, getting rid of crossover allows people to be focused.

Another thing that struck me was the statement that "Crossover distorts people's values", which is frankly something that I've been saying for a long time. The "Three Tenors" was a fluke and to expect the kind of return as that album achieved is unrealistic. These were three (with Zubin Mehta making four) mature, accomplished artists, pulling together for a special event which, for those of us who love opera proved to be fun and for those who didn't proved that operatic music can be fun. But re-hashing it over and over again turned into self-parody, without the spontaneous enjoyment of the first one. The recording was just a record of that event, which many people assumed wouldn't reoccur and wanted to remember. When it did (ad nauseum), they just got bored.

Let's hope Mr. Hetherwick succeeds and that others have the same kind of courage to trust in the music and in the audience.

I really want to hate her.

Nobody turns me off more in opera today than Angela Gheorghiu. I have heard enough horror stories from public and private sources, not to mention having had her cancel two performances to which I had tickets (one in the wake of 9-11, for which I can forgive her and another after the start of the Iraq war, for which I can't). I've read too many interviews (like this one in the Independent, courtesy of Andante.com), where I imagine she thinks she's behaving like a prima donna, but to me sounds only petulant. Her husband, Alagna, while somewhat erratic himself, comes off to me as likeable. She's just frightening.

So it is with some trepidation that I gave a listen to her new Puccini album, mostly because it has been pretty well praised in the press. Well, despite myself I liked it. There is something about the quality of her voice that seems fragile while at the same time conveys strength. The whole thing is not necessary on the same level (Tu che di gel from Turandot is somewhat anonymous and Laggiu nel Soledad underpowered) but there are a few gems here. I imagine that someday she will be very good in Manon Lescaut and for me Sola, perduta, abbandonata is a highlight of the album along with the Edgar and Le Villi arias. In questa reggia is beautiful if, well, wrong.

She's beautiful and a lovely artist. But I hope I never meet her in a dark alley.

Making life easier

In my capacity as a web designer, I'm planning to do a critique of the new Metropolitan Opera website, which is a significant improvement over the old one, although there are still a few problems with it. But to see what a website can do, visit the NY Philharmonic website.

Today I needed to exchange my tickets to next Thursdays Riccardo Muti conducted Liszt Faust Symphony for another date and I amazingly discovered that as a subscriber (a "Create Your Own" subscription, I was able to do over the internet), I could exchange my tickets over the internet. No phone call, no schlepping up to the box office. Now that's customer service!

Now here's to hoping that Muti shows up (for more on that Giorgia at no guru, no method, no teacher has some good links).