Dallas Bach Society goes for baroque

Few concert experiences can match…the program of French baroque music capped with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera-ballet, Pygmalion.

Excerpts from DFW.com : Classical

DALLAS – Classical music performances often transport us to another time and place.

But few concert experiences can match the bewigged, satin-clad and tres elegant time traveling the Dallas Bach Society did Tuesday night at the Meyerson Symphony Center, where it presented a program of French baroque music capped with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera-ballet, Pygmalion.

It is tempting to say that works of this type are seldom done today, but that would be an exaggeration. Never would be more like it. Trotting out a French opera-ballet is the musical equivalent of unearthing a mummy’s tomb.

This style of stage entertainment, which does its storytelling with some singing and a lot of dancing, is strange to us. But it was enormously popular in 17th- and 18th-century France, at least in part because King Louis XIV had been a dancer.

So it was an incredible treat just to have the chance to see what these opera-ballets look like. The experience was not only an example of this obscure form but also a first-rate display of its many charming attributes.

There is no Henry Higgins or Eliza Doolittle in this Pygmalion. In this more direct telling of the ancient legend, the title character is a sculptor who falls in love with the statue of a beautiful woman he has created. His girlfriend isn’t too thrilled about this, but Love—in opera-ballets, concepts like love were often characters—is impressed with the sculptor’s ardor and brings the statue to life to set up a happily-ever-after ending (for everybody except the original girlfriend).

Tenor Mathias Vidal did a superb job with the vocal aspects of the title character, and what a lucky break that was, because the only time he got to shut his mouth during this 40-minute, one-act work was when everyone else was dancing. His pipes were matched only by those of Ava Pine as Love. The soprano has previously dazzled Fort Worth audiences with her mastery of baroque repertoire, and she was just as impressive on this night. It’s a shame that she had so few lines.

The highly mannered dancing was expertly handled by members of the New York Baroque Dance Company, decked out in wonderful period costumes and masks. The players of the Bach Society and its supporting chorus, under artistic director James Richman, provided solid support in a performance that brimmed with grace and charm.

Rameau is probably the most unjustly overlooked composer of the baroque era, and it was extremely satisfying to hear his music presented in the sort of showcase it deserves.

In the first half of the performance, the Bach Society whetted our appetites with a trio of works by Marais, de Lalande and Rebel. The Chaconne from Marais’ opera Semele was especially well-executed, with the ensemble achieving a level of smoothness rarely heard in original-instruments performances in this stately yet flowing work.

GRADE: A

By PUNCH SHAW
Posted on Thu, Feb. 22, 2007
Special to the Star-Telegram