Symphony’S ‘Elijah’ Convincing
Spokane Symphony Orchestra Friday, Nov. 19, Opera House
The Spokane Symphony and Symphony Chorale, under the baton of Fabio Mechetti, returned Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” to the Opera House stage Friday after an absence of 12 years. There are few composers whose work falls more gracefully on the ears than that of Mendelssohn, and “Elijah” contains some of the composer’s most beautiful music.
The symphony and chorale were joined by a team of six soloists that included a noble Elijah, baritone Timothy LeFebvre. The success of this oratorio hinges on the ability of that soloist to characterize the complex personality of the Old Testament prophet - in moods ranging from vengeful anger to forlorn despair. LeFebvre was a profoundly moving Elijah.
The other crucial ingredient for a successful “Elijah” is a fine chorus. Mendelssohn’s chorus - like Handel’s - is as much of a “character” in his oratorios as any of the soloists. The Symphony Chorale - excellently prepared by its director Lori Wiest - filled the bill. There was splendid singing in that work’s widely diverse expressive modes, from the powerful plea “Help, Lord! Wilt Thou quite destroy us?” through the exultation of “Thanks be to God!” to the quiet beauty of “He that shall endure to the end shall be saved.”
Soprano Luvada Harrison was dramatically sure in the scene between Elijah and the Widow, and she soared easily to angelic heights in the famous aria, “Hear ye Israel.” Pil-Sung Kim was uniformly forceful in the tenor roles of Obadiah and King Ahab. Alto Linda Caple-Adams seemed to be more at home dramatically in her scene as the wicked Queen Jezebel than in her stints elsewhere in the work as an Angel. The pure soprano of treble Jimmy Wittrock made an outstanding impression in the role of Elijah’s apprentice, Elisha, on the lookout for the story’s drought-ending rain. Soprano Tamara Schupman joined the other soloist reliably in several of the work’s many ensembles.
Mechetti’s orchestral accompaniments were admirable. Mendelssohn’s finely honed orchestrations rarely call attention to themselves. But when he does, instrumentalists had a chance to shine - as in the cellos’ eloquent commentary to Elijah’s Bach-like lament, “It is enough, Oh Lord,” or in the pathos oboist Keith Thomas brought to the prophet’s aria “For the mountains shall depart.”
For all its beauties, “Elijah” presents a problem Mendelssohn left for conductors to solve. His librettist, Julius Schubring, packed the action into the oratorio’s first half, and made the second part almost entirely contemplative - sleepily so. Librettist and composer argued about it (for years, in fact); in the end, Mendelssohn simply gave up and wrote beautifully, as only he could.
Mechetti’s skilled pacing made an admirable, and a convincing, case for a beautiful work with a slight but noticeable flaw.