Classical Voice Review - LA Philharmonic. Verdi Requiem - Gustavo Dudamel conducts, Nov 7, 2009

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Grant Gershon, chorus master
Leah Crocetto, soprano
Ekaterina Gubanova, mezzo-soprano
David Lomeli, tenor
John Relyea, bass

Saturday, November 7, 2009 at Walt Disney Hall

requiem is a Mass for the repose of the dead. But Verdi's operatic Requiem for
Alessandro Manzoni evokes not so much repose as the fire and brimstone,
ranging from graphic choral and orchestral depictions of the fiery horror of
Judgment Day to the soloists' impassioned pleas for grace. Verdi himself saw the work as
much at home in a theater as in a church; three days after the Requiem's premiere in 1874,
at the Church of San Marco in Milan, he conducted a performance at La Scala. And
when he took the piece on tour the next year, it was not to churches but to some of the
leading opera houses and concert halls of Europe.

Even though Gustavo Dudamel has yet to conduct an opera at a major venue, his account was nonetheless firmly planted in the theater, full of fire and drama . This was a raw, primal Requiem. Even the rests and pauses became charged when Dudamel unpredictably extended them, only to shatter them with the next wave of sound. The Los Angeles Master Chorale responded with equal enthusiasm as they did in the final frenetic measures of Beethoven’s Ninth at the Hollywood Bowl two months ago.

It was a testament to Dudamel’s technical prowess that, amid all this swirling of raw energies, he was able to maintain perfect clarity in the intricate contrapuntal vocal lines of Dies Irae and the eight-part fugue of Sanctus. In lesser hands, these two sections would probably have been turned into a big, blurry, sloppy mess. The Master Chorale once again rose to the challenge and sounded positively Dionysian in Sanctus.

Like any Verdi opera (notably Il Trovatore), the Requiem revolves around its four soloists. They may not have roles per se, but Verdi couldn't write for voice without giving it dramatic definition; the whole notion of a Verdi soprano or Verdi mezzo is linked to a kind of theatricality as well as to a certain vocal weight and color.

In this performance, both casting and characterization were uneven. The bass, John Relyea, was the most experienced and qualified of the quartet. He provided the weight, color and gravity required in his thundering entrances (“Mors stupebit”) and sustained them throughout the evening in firm, incisive legato singing.

30-year-old Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova also gave a highly committed and probing reading of her part, but her main problem seemed to stem from the fine but rather smallish size of her instrument – fit for the role of a lady-in-waiting but not a jilted princess or a crazed gypsy in a Verdi opera just yet. Even so, one took considerable pleasure in her soft radiant tones in the tenderly moving Lacrimosa (sung ‘con molto espressione’ per the composer).

David Lomeli, a current Adler Fellow apprentice with the San Francisco Opera, has the makeup of a fine lyric tenor but not yet the full arsenal of dramatic accents at his disposal. In Ingemisco, the tenor’s big solo, Lomeli hit all the right notes (including the high B-flat at the end), but without much conviction or feeling of angst. His finest hour came much later in a beautifully sustained half-voice prayer of Hostias.

The Requiem calls for a quintessential Verdi soprano: a big, warm voice with, ideally, a quality of limpidity. Zinka Milanov and Leontyne Price were, in very different ways, noted interpreters of a role that carries the singer from the achingly sweet Recordare and Agnus Dei duets to the angst of the final Libera Me.

Soprano Leah Crocetto, another Adler Fellow in her first year of apprenticeship, possesses a sharp, laser beam-like upper register but not the amplitude or the low notes requisite to do battle with the tsunami of orchestral and choral forces in Libera Me. With no help from the kinetically-explosive maestro, Ms. Crocetto was hopelessly overwhelmed and buried beneath the thick ensemble of sounds. In the softer passages of the Recordare duet, however, Ms. Crocetto’s gleaming soprano revealed its tender overtones and blended with Ms. Gubanova’s velvety soft singing to make the duet glow.

One has heard better Verdi Requiems and ones far worse. This is perhaps beside the point. It is Gustavo Dudamel’s presence at the Disney Hall that has made things different. His extraordinary and dynamic personality attracts both serious fans and curious gawkers alike, and the world of classical music is better off for it.

To purchase tickets for Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2009/10 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.