‘Chic’ is an almost banal description of the atmosphere at the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s first ‘Annual Gala’ on Friday evening. Elegant dresses, penguins, champagne galore. There seems to be no staff shortage here, so many people walk around with bowls of caviar, macarons, small yellow aubergine burgers and (thankfully) cones of fries.
The Concertgebouw Orchestra holds galas every year, but until now that was always the opening of the season. That season opening has already taken place at the beginning of September in Amsterdam’s Westerpark, from a large stage and free of charge. From now on there will be an ‘Annual Gala’ later in the year, for invited guests, donors and people who think it is worth an expensive ticket. The program includes Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea (1739), arranged by Mozart (1788).
Crushing Rock
Pierre Audi, former artistic director of Dutch National Opera and the Holland Festival, and now ‘creative partner’ of the KCO, has provided the ‘mise-en-espace’. Or flatter: a bit of decor so that the opera seems a bit staged. From the bottom step of the grand staircase to the right begins a plateau that curves to the left in a tapering curve and ends in a sharp point that hangs just over the edge of the stage. It is bright green and strongly reminiscent of a mini golf course. To its right, a significant portion of the stage is covered in a black shiny, garbage bag material-like foil. On the left are musicians from the Concertgebouw Orchestra in a small line-up.
At the beginning of the plateau is a large rock, as a reference to the rock with which Polypheme crushes Acis, because that is what happens in this opera: Nymph Galatea and shepherd Acis are in love, but the monstrous Cyclops Polypheme is also in love with Galatea. He crushes Acis, after which Galatea turns him into a river god and his blood seeps into a river.
Big awkwardness Friday evening: the surtitles don’t start talking until about 1/3rd has already been sung. The opera may be in English, but it is not easy to follow. Only from the aria ‘Shepherd, What Art Thou Persuing’ we know what it is about. Yet tenor Mark Milhofer has already managed to impress as Acis: he has a soft, but beautiful, friendly sound. That impression explodes in his aria ‘Love in Her Eyes Sits Playing’: so high, so soft, beautiful in long vibratoless notes and very subtle in extending vocal embellishments.
evil voice
Even before his actual emergence, a spider-like creature occasionally pops up from behind the rock: a man in a long robe of the same black shiny material is, of course, Polypheme. And what kind. Bas Sreten Manojlovic appears to harbor a completely cynical evil theater in his voice. With such terrifying acting in your vocals, you as a spectator can close your eyes and see much more than that green plateau and a boulder.
The semi-direction is not very uplifting, but fortunately there is the conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, who is making his debut for the KCO, and a specialist in early opera. His conducting style is fascinating and infectious, more mime than measure. He makes small wavy movements with all parts of his body. He points, rocks, waves, hops, folds his hands in front of his chest, steps on and off the buck; it’s extremely easy to follow how he wants the music to sound. And it sounds that way. The KCO musicians deliver beautiful clarinet doubles, a nice know-it-all bassoon and undulating strings. The highlight is the trio ‘The Flocks Shall Leave the Mountains’, in which Acis and Galatea sweetly sing to each other that they are inseparable while Polypheme bleats furiously through it. Alarcón manages to make both those atmospheres, sweet in the wind section, bleating in the cellos, sound great at the same time and well distinguishable. Exciting and top notch. Only the Nederlands Kamerkoor does not reach that top level. They are not as precise, not as mystical as you would like with English choral pieces. They have rehearsed an interpretation much braver than Alarcón’s, and they fail to adapt to him.
Afterparty
It was getting late in the Concertgebouw. For those who wanted to delve into the program just heard, artistic director Ulrike Niehoff interviewed Alarcón and Audi in the Conductor’s Foyer. There was a sound in all hallways. In the Spiegelzaal and in the Kleine Zaal there was a lot of drinking to atmospheric jazz. The queue for the Koorzaal grew longer and longer: there in the basement people danced to very hard dance for a long time. Even the KCO logo, the crown, danced along in futuristic animations projected on the wall.