Love in the Air at 2006 Cincinnati May Festival

   The 2006 Cincinnati May Festival opened Friday night at Music Hall with a song of brotherhood, a lusty ode to love and some of the best singing one could hope for.
   Led by music director James Conlon, the concert began with a world premiere, Adolphus Hailstork's "Earthrise," a "free fantasy" inspired by Schiller's "Ode to Joy" and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Carl Orff's ode to glandular attraction, "Carmina Burana."
   A near full-house greeted the performers, who included the Brazeal Dennard Chorale from Detroit, sopranos Cynthia Haymon and Norah Amsellem, tenor Rodrick Dixon, baritone Lester Lynch, the May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus, Cincinnati Children's Choir and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
   The foyer was decked in a riot of giant paper blossoms, with the traditional maypole in the center, around which pink-clad dancers performed their annual rite of spring before the concert and at intermission.
   Hailstork's "Earthrise," commissioned by the festival, takes its title from the moment when the world joined in awe at the first pictures of the Earth from the Moon taken by the Apollo astronauts. Sung by the Brazeal Dennard Chorale and the May Festival Chorus - representing two communities, as it were - it made a fine metaphor for universal brotherhood.
   Like the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, it began with a big, chaotic chord and generalized orchestral fury. The chorus sounded Schiller's opening text in German, answered in "urban speak" by the chorale until the two choirs settled on English on the words "respect for one another."
   There was a touch of swing in the orchestral interlude before the entire ensemble cut loose in an infectious paean to joy. After a soft, chordal section ("bow before the God of love all creation"), soprano Haymon added a touch of gospel complete with piano accompaniment.
   The transition to full community began with a quote from "O What a Beautiful City," whereupon the choirs merged - literally, by having choir members switch positions and musically in a final "unity hymn, which underwent a set of crescendoing variations. The last four notes were a direct quote from Beethoven's opening theme, chosen, said Hailstork, because they called to mind the words "It's up to us."
   Always a crowd pleaser, "Carmina Burana" enjoyed the luxury of three superlative soloists. Lynch melted hearts with his warm, tender "Omnia sol temperat," seethed with anger as the abbot of Cucany, and negotiated the tricky falsetto in "Cours d'amours" with amazing facility.
   Tenor Dixon was nothing less than phenomenal in the punishingly high "Cignus ustus" which he sang full voice to perfection with facial expressions befitting a fowl roasting on a spit.
   Soprano Amsellem personified the spirit of "Carmina Burana" in her climactic "Dulcissime," whose X-rated high notes said it all. The choruses, including the Children's Choir, played their parts with zest, the women beguiling in the "Round Dance," the men bringing smiles to the crowd in their boisterous "In taberna."
   Conlon led with command, whether coaxing a nuance from the Children's Choir or leaning into crashing measures of "O Fortuna." The CSO sounded splendid as usual and the crowd responded with a great clamor of approval.
   The festival continues at 8 p.m. tonight at Music Hall with an all-British program, including Michael Tippett's oratorio "A Child of Our Time," led by May Festival chorus director Robert Porco. The annual twilight concert at Covington's Cathedral Basilica is 7 p.m. Sunday with an all-Mozart program.
(first published in The Cincinnati Post May 20, 2006)