Concert Review                                by Classical Voice
 

Dutoit returns to L.A. to conduct a brilliant Berlioz 'Romeo and Juliet'

By Truman Wang
October 23, 2010

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
Charles Dutoit, conductor
LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE
Grant Gershon, Music Director

Laureen McNeese, mezzo-soprano
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, tenor
Jonathan Lemalu, bass-baritone

Hector Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17


Saturday, October 23, 2010 at Walt Disney Concert Hall

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fter an exciting week of French music, in which the L.A. Phil musicians were given a vigorous workout in the music of Olivier Messiaen in conjunction with French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (who recently did a French take on the quintessentially American Rhapsody in Blue on a new CD), we welcomed conductor  Charles Dutoit this week to lead another lavishly-scored French work, Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet.

Performed complete in three parts, this early-Romantic French masterpiece was heard in all its glorious splendors, where the orchestra and the chorus joined forces with the narrator-soloists to lend monumental dimensions to the Shakespearean tragedy.  Maestro Dutoit’s attention to detail paid off in the delicate, gossamer  textures of the orchestra and the Swiss watch-like precision of the ensemble.   The famous Love Scene and Queen Mab especially benefitted from Dutoit’s masterful conducting. 

Passion, however, was not lost in all that glitter and gold of Berlioz’s extravagant score.   The opening of Part Two deftly evoked the mystical world of Tristan and Isolde and the impending doom of the star-crossed lovers.  There was Wagnerian richness and luminosity of sound in  Dutoit’s unfailingly sympathetic reading.   The Love Scene, eighteen minutes of exhausting, wordless bliss, achieved its intended effects so well that maestro Dutoit had to exit the stage to recover before proceeding to finish the remainder of Part Two. 

As this Romeo and Juliet is a ‘Symphonie Dramatique’, not an opera, the roles of the lovers are portrayed by the orchestra.  The soloists and chorus narrate the tragedy in third person.  There was a brilliant performance of the ‘Queen Mab’ song by French tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, taken at top speed and delivered with incredible nimbleness.  Lauren McNeese’s mezzo-soprano was angelic-toned in the Strophic song but too slight to be heard over the thick orchestral velvet.  Bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu was similarly ill-equipped to tackle the orchestral and choral forces in the finale.  Grant Gershon’s L.A. Master Chorale, singing with unison of purpose and faultless execution, once again outdid themselves in bringing out the sturm und drang of the Shakespearean drama.    

The famed Philadelphia Orchestra is fortunate to have Charles Dutoit as their new Music Director.  I look forward to many happy returns to L.A. from the maestro. 
 

To purchase tickets for Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2010/11 season, call (323) 850-2000 or visit online www.laphil.org

 

   

Truman C. Wang is editor-in-chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Pasadena Star-News, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily.

 

 

 

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