A May Festival Premiere for "L'Enfance du Christ"

Friday, 26 May 2007: "L’enfance du Christ," Op. 25, by Hector Berlioz conducted by James Conlon with Michèle Losier (mezzo-soprano) as Mary, John Aler (tenor) as the Narrator/Centurion, William McGraw (baritone) as Joseph/Polydorus, and David Pittsinger (bass-baritone) as Herod/The Ishamaelite Father the May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

   This was the premiere May Festival performance of this piece and perhaps James Conlon said it best, when in his opening comments, he remarked: “I don’t know how the May Festival missed this piece.” I couldn’t agree more it was time to hear it at May Festival and Conlon, the chorus, the orchestra and the soloists captured the spirit of it well.
   In Berlioz’s time, much of the Parisian audience and their critics saw his Op. 25 as a drastic and welcome departure from what they perceived as his usual style. Indeed, among his output, "L’enfance du Christ" fared better than most of his other works.
   Overall, the performance was quite good. The Chorus, outstanding as usual, shined especially at the end, with the off-stage group of female singers alternating with the extremely subdued on-stage choir. Their pianissimo ending was highly effective. Concerning the soloists, I have to say, I’m not a huge fan of John Aler’s voice I know he is often at the May Festival and has a distinguished career, but I find his range to be restricted, his vibrato overwhelming, and his tone to be narrow and at times forced (as was the case in his Part II and Part III narrations).
   Michèle Losier and William McGraw were better and sang very well together, but the real star was David Pittsinger, who, as Herod and the Ishmaelite Father, was convincing and deeply moving and he sounded equally great in both extremes of his range.
   This concert was a little different in that various paintings were shown on a screen to accompany the music. This worked out very well, especially in the unsung instrumental parts. Occasionally the pictures were a little distracting, but at the end of the instrumental prelude to “The Holy Family at Rest” in Part II, I was deeply engrossed in the music and images and when Aler entered I found him distracting.
   The choice of paintings during the epilogue was interesting. Berlioz’s text mentions “[Christ’s] mission of salvation,” only very briefly and this would have been easily missed had not the images shown the crucifixion, the crowd taking His body off the cross, His ascension at Pentecost, and saints bowing before Him in heaven. These images cast a deeply religious and Christian slant to the entire production that would have been absent without them. But, judging by the profanity-laced diatribe against the soprano from the two gentlemen in front of me, and the quick return to shallow gossip by the women behind me, maybe I was the only one who felt that way.
   All in all, a great concert and a deeply-moving performance of a deeply-moving piece.