13 - 19 December 2001
Issue No.564
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 13 - 19 December 2001 Issue No.564 |
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Years and years of cheer
David Blake relishes the Handel therapy
Cairo Symphony Orchestra Christmas Concert I, conductor Ahmed El-Saedi, soloists Iman Mustafa, Gihan Fayed, Georges Wanis, Reda El-Wakil; A Capella Choir, choir master Maya Gvineria; Cairo Opera House Main Hall, 8 December
During the interval of section one of this three-section performance of Handel's Messiah, a cheerful female voice called out to me: "So you're still here! Many years to get through yet." The source of the voice, an equally cheerful looking lady, was bending over me. Was the reference to the lifetime of the present reviewer, or to the hours yet to come of Handel's music?
Iman Mustafa
Well, regardless of her intent, there were to be many more eras stretching into the imperium, many more hours of this musical effusion. Epochs ago, when the Messiah was still young, they used to say the ultimate chord of music was embedded somewhere in the last section. The work, quite clearly, assumed its legendary status very early in its existence.
The life travels of this work are worth at least a brief examination. It began in London, and quickly achieved celebrity, more so than Handel's many operas, and they were far from unpopular. From its very first performances it had a peculiar existence. It was not operatic, it was not symphonic, was neither grandly classical nor intimate. It was just the Messiah. The thread that connected it with the emotions of the human race never had any snags. It went all over the world. Differences in language did not appear to impinge on anyone. People rushed to hear it, and having rushed, sat to listen. And they liked it.
Its three sections are worked out with a quite meticulous care. It demands an enormous ensemble -- orchestra, voices and chorus -- all of whom are manipulated with an astounding simplicity. The detailing is worked as close to perfection as it is perhaps possible to go, and dramatic situations are consistently played up to their full effect. We are given the most lucid account of Christ's life story, an account that no other music, not even Bach, can approach for its childlike simplicity.
Perhaps it is that simplicity that accounts for its endless appeal. It can sometimes stick, getting bogged down in the mire that early Baroque theatre music has become. But of its genre, nothing can surpass it. World wanderers sitting and listening to performances of the Messiah experience only this lucidity. You can tire of it, but those tones and that gently rocking rhythm always bring back the sense of love and understanding of the situation in hand, the great message of Jesus Christ.
Last night's playing of it was decidedly gentle. Not quite the thousand performers of the Royal Albert Hall or suchlike places, but a stately and very warm glow still suffused the three sections: they were always done with sympathy and appeal. Handel told the tale of Jesus's life with a complete and sincere simplicity.
The bass voice begins the performance. Reda El- Wakil, the Cairo Opera bass, was expansive and warm. His natural dignity and musicianship enabled him to give a gentle pathos to his strong outburst of the beginning of the story.
Handel's operas did not do very well in the theatre but the oratorios, among which the Messiah must be counted, were always triumphant. Yet the sympathy, clear and personal, managed to survive any hints of triumphalism.
Gihan Fayed, alto, came next, singing with the simplicity demanded by the entire performance. And the A Capella Choir, accompanying her, made every effort to be gentle. It is, after all, Christmas, not a requiem, and certainly not an oratorio in the manner of the great drama Handel made for the story of Judas Maccadeus.
This excellent company provided the perfect foil for Georges Wanis, tenor, to show his much improved style. His openings, long coloratura, were all done extremely well. He is becoming a singer in whose voice Mozart propensities are increasingly beginning to shine. His actual singing was unaffected, suggestive of the characters he sang about while at the same time allowing them a slight remove from the sense of religiosity.
In the second section, after another symphonic interlude of the same gentle sounds, we were given "Rejoice Greatly" by Iman Mustafa. Her role in the Messiah is neither large nor showy. Her voice was bright like a cellophane, and her composure and dignity appealing.
She seemed far away on a mountain top, though still belonging to the work in hand, which was warm. It was a strange withdrawal, some other way to do the two famous soprano arias. Iman was certainly original.
And after Iman, Gihan Fayed sang her many solos with the chorus -- equally the work of the angels.
El-Saedi had used the light, silvery orchestra very beautifully. The entire concert was mercifully lacking in the blowsy, oratorio stand- and-deliver department. Everything, rather, contrived to set the Messiah afloat. The words were clear, and the tones and rhythm of gentle trotting, so difficult to manage in Handel, were neither abrasive nor repetitive.
The chorus, so necessary in this work, had effected that impressive welding that made of them a single unit. They varied their sounds magnificently: there was no harshness, no aggression, simply a melding, a determination to sing as if in a single person's voice.
It was a real discovery, this calm, peaceful, meditative Messiah. And when, before the final outburst of wind and brass joyfully ended the performance, Iman Mustafa sang her celestial "I know that my redeemer liveth," her voice was very fine, rounded and soft; she was viewing the work from a distance. She looked and sounded like Astre Luce, the eastern star, the light that keeps the other lights burning. Thus to the forefront of this happy landscape, a cheerful ending came to the strange long life of the Messiah.
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