At the Cathedral of the Incarnation on the nights of Feb. 13 and 14, the Ignoti Dei Opera Company, in their inaugural performance, presented two Baroque English operas: John Blow's Venus and Adonis and Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. The company, whose name is derived from the motto of the Accademia degli Incognito, a group of composers and librettists in 17th century Venice, was founded by Timothy Nelson, an undergraduate composer and harpsichordist at the Peabody Conservatory. The mission of the company is to present early dramatic musical works.
For a first production, both operas exceeded expectations and were put on with an incredible professionalism as well as beauty. The orchestra, led by harpsichordist Adam Pearl, was well organized and played elegantly. Unlike the large orchestras we are used to, the Baroque-style orchestra for these operas was small, consisting entirely of strings and recorders. They were also not located in the usual orchestra pit; rather, they were set up right on stage in front of the audience. Their small size and visible location gave the music a pleasant sort of familiarity.
A nice touch was the way Cupid, in Venus and Adonis, interacted with the orchestra, summoning them to play. This unification of music and plot was especially well done. Also, the chorus moved around the stage and to various places in the room including behind the orchestra which gave the music a dynamic and immediate and intimate effect.
Venus and Adonis was performed traditionally, as it would have been in the 17th century. The period costumes were elegant and well-coordinated. Both Venus and Adonis wore gold and white; Cupid and the putti wore blue, and the chorus of huntsmen wore browns. Also, a Baroque dancer was integrated into the performance during one of the interludes. The singing of Bonnie McNaughton as Venus, the goddess who has fallen in love with the mortal Adonis, and Ryan de Ryke as Adonis was phenomenal.
Both singers were dramatic both physically and vocally, especially in the final scene where Adonis returns from a hunt, fatally injured and the lovers sing together a last time before his death. The haunting reoccurrence of themes from their happier days is especially tragic, and the protagonists obviously knew the music and their parts well enough to tap into this subtle element of the piece.
Dido and Aeneas was, on the other hand, modernized in a very experimental way to give the story an interesting psychological twist. In this performance, Dido sang not only her own lines, but also those of the evil sorceress who drives Aeneas to leave and leads to Dido's suicide. Dido, tormented by aural and visual hallucinations over the course of the opera, goes completely insane.
The chorus of visions, dressed all in black, with their terrifyingly persistent voices that echoed and at times shrieked were incredible actors. They stared blankly yet frighteningly at the audience the entire time and the way they interacted with each other and Dido was well done. They were an unnerving presence on stage, a nice parallel to the gradually developing insanity of the protagonist. Dido, played by Julia Steinbok, did very well in portraying an insane troubled woman, especially in the scene where Aeneas, carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit, returns to see her and she shuns him, unable to escape from the visions that encircle her, visions which he clearly cannot see.
It was amazing how well this opera adapted to a modern interpretation and is a mark of the ingenuity and the simultaneously progressive and knowledgeable methods of the Ignoti Dei Opera Company. The company is sure to be successful in the future, if this amazing inaugural performance is any indicator of the caliber of work of which they are capable.
Somewhere in a dusty weed-smoke-reeking basement among old Phish bootlegs, the jam band spirit is on life support, but veterans Big Head Todd and the Monsters pump a little life into the old style with their new alt-country/blues pop LP Crimes of Passion. There was a time when playing 20-minute epic versions of every known rock song, with solos over every chord change was "self expression." But this same opportunity to display that amazing talent is also what leaves most people cold to the jam band style. Todd and company add the missing link between talent and real music: song structure.
The 11 tracks on this disc are pop songs modified by influences ranging from acid jazz to blues rock to funk. While lead singer Todd Mohr doesn't have the command of voice of a Dave Matthews of a John Mayer, his soul is just as clear and quite a bit more sincere. This sincerity is what makes Todd stand out from his contemporaries; while DMB may have loads of talent, their recent output hasn't had half the feeling of Crimes.
There are no great stand-out tracks, although "Beauty Queen" and "Imaginary Ships" beg to be made into singles, and the only real weakness is an tendency toward electro. Random bits of NIN and Depeche Mode-inspired synth litter some of the tracks, and while it isn't horrible, it just doesn't fit the style.
