Concert Review                           by Classical Voice
 

The Great Mr. Handel (and Ms. Futral)

By Truman C. Wang
Friday, May 5, 2006

Acis and Galatea

A Masque or English Pastoral by
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759)

Acis Tony Boutte
Galatea Elizabeth Futral
Damon   Marc Molomot
Polyphemus   Wolfgang Bankl

Martin Haselboeck conducts
MUSICA ANGELICA
Chorus: Corey Carlton, Daniel Plaster,
             Will Rawley, Jason Snyder
 

Performance of Friday, May 5, 2006 at Zipper Hall,
Colburn School of Music

 

W

ith Handel’s pastoral opera Acis and Galatea, Musica Angelica struck a gold mine by casting opera sensation Elizabeth Futral, who more often than not would be singing at the Big House across the street than at a music school auditorium with a chamber group.  The marketing ploy paid off handsomely, as attested by the overflowing crowd, half of whom I am sure came from across the street to pay homage to their Cleopatra (L.A. Opera, 2001)

A marketing success, and an artistic triumph.

Acis and Galatea, written in 1718, is a happy product of Handel’s Italian-opera years (1710-1740).  It employees a small orchestra of virtuoso strings, an oboe and a recorder.  Its vocal forces include a male/female double chorus as well as four great singers fluent in the Italian style of belcanto.

The star of the evening was unquestionably Ms. Futral.  An accomplished soprano trained in the Italian art of the florid song, her every vocal inflection and dramatic accent were not only always musical, but also illuminated Galatea’s character from joy to grief and every shade of emotion in between.  Ms. Futral could just as well have held her audience spellbound with her beauty alone, if it weren’t for her lyrical gifts.  

The male soloists were all fine: tenor Tony Boutte’s smooth-as-silk Acis, dramatic tenor Marc Molomot as Damon, Acis’s romantic rival, and bass Wolfgang Bankl’s Polyphemus (singing wide-leaping lines favored by Handel’s evil basses).  

Conductor Martin Haselboeck led his small ensemble in a thrilling, vital performance that conjured up such remarkable sound effects as birds (“pretty warbling quire”), breezy lush meadows (“love in her eyes”) and trumpets (“love sounds the alarm”).  It was as much a tribute to Musica Angelica’s virtuosity as to Handel’s genius.  The only misfire was the smallish chorus with a lopsided distribution of male (4)/female (1) singers, delivering a less-than-happy Happy Chorus (“o the pleasure of the plains”).  The dark-sounding male dominated chorus, however, proved highly effective in Act Two’s lachrymose “wretched lovers”.

Futral alert -- one more performance remains on Sunday at UCLA’s Royce Hall.  Do not miss it!
 

   

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

 

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