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Michael O’Neal Singers and Rossini’s Irreverent Mass
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CONCERT REVIEW The Michael O’Neal Singers. Monday at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. www.mosingers.org.
Whatever the faith, whatever the denomination, if there’s one agreed-upon rule for religious music it is this: Don’t make fun of church.
From boisterous high spirits in praise of the Almighty to lamentation for mankind’s pitiful state to groveling piety and hopes for a better afterlife, almost anything goes in church music — except sly mockery of the very traditions, institutions and deities that are ostensibly being celebrated.
Perhaps that explains why Gioachino Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle” — a beautiful, touching and bizarre mass that swims, gleefully, in irony — is infrequently performed.
Thankfully, the Michael O’Neal Singers, some 120 voices strong, delivered a vital, superb performance of this wonderful mass — which is neither petite nor solemn — Monday evening at the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, in Buckhead.
Scored for large choir, four vocal soloists, piano and harmonium (here replaced by pipe organ), the mass was written long after the great composer had retired from the opera stage. Across its 85 minutes, it violates the fundamental social contract to not make fun of someone else’s beliefs.
But there it is: Rossini constructed the “Domine Deus” section as a sort of “goofy tenor” aria. In another context, with different words, this could be music where a country bumpkin — a fool in love — accidentally spills his affection to the wrong girl, leading to mayhem and hilarity.
Except the Latin texts, in heavy pronouncements of “God the Father Almighty” and “O Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son,” seems to beg for music a bit less bouncy, cuddly and, well, goofy.
Tenor Derek Taylor, with a baritonal richness to his voice, sang the “Domine Deus” straight, and like an oddball comedian who never smiles, this only heightened the amusing disconnect.
Movement by movement, the pattern’s the same. Bass Daniel Cole sang the “Quoniam” in vivid and flowing tones, although it was impossible to take the “For only thou are holy” message at face value.
Backed by the heavenly choir, mezzo Jennifer Hines made the ending “Agnus Dei” special, her dusky, contralto-like voice wrapped around phrases like an Earth Mother’s embrace.
Only soprano Amy Bils seemed miscast, with a pretty voice but no operatic heft, no keg of gunpowder at the ready for when the music gave off sparks.
The mass also contains two great fugal choral sections, which are joyous and ridiculously out-of-scale. O’Neal clearly loves and understands this music, on many levels, and in the “Cum Sancto Spiritu” he kept tempos fast and at the edge of clarity yet never lost the juggling plates-in-the-air quality. Delightful.
So too was pianist David Watkins’ playing for his long fantasy-solo, another moment of exceptional appeal that has the audience asking one question: What’s going on?
Perhaps in the “Petite Messe Solennelle” Rossini is anticipating the looming 19th century (and current) notion that blurs religion and entertainment. He doesn’t ask deep questions or try to provide cosmic answers that trouble a man’s soul. Instead, he seems to tell us that church, like everything else, is merely theater of the absurd. So you might as well have fun with it.
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