![]() St-Arnaud’s bright soprano lit up her solos, but it had a bit of a flinty edge. He excelled in delivering the drunken boasting of Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis – complete with a well-placed hiccup – from the balcony but anyone who sat under the balcony were deprived of seeing him. Madore’s ultra smooth baritone expressed the Omnia sol temperat solo beautifully, but he struggled to be heard above the orchestra in Estuans inteius. In taberna quando sumus needed to grow in sonic volume, but didn’t, and the women overshadowed the men in several of the final choruses. For example, more presence and heft in the men’s voices would have helped especially in Floret silva nobilis chorus when they sang “Hinc equitavit!” and “Der is geritten hinnen!” to create a sense of riding away on a horse (starting loud and then fading). Singing without masks, the Portland State University Chorus delivered the text (mostly Latin, but also some Medieval Bavarian dialect and dabs of French) with excellent diction, but the men could not be heard as well as the women. Considering the lack of rehearsal time, the performance went well, though it did come up a bit short. The lineup featured Portland State University Choirs, the Pacific Youth Choir, soprano Catherine St-Arnaud, tenor Arnold Livingston Geis, and baritone Elliot Madore. ![]() That delayed the concert a bit, but everyone seemed in a good mood and the hall was filled to the brim for Carmina Burana.īritish conductor Leo Hussain led the program, which he summed up in his introductory comments as conveying the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the Middle Ages. A brisk wind and some rain pelted the concertgoers who waited in a long line extending half a block up Broadway to obtain tickets that they had changed from Saturday to Sunday. There was still some snow and ice on the sidewalks downtown, but most of it had been scraped aside on Sunday afternoon when I got to Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Consequently, the musicians couldn’t regroup to practice until Saturday–which resulted in canceling that evening’s performance–and reducing the program for the Sunday and Monday concerts, with only Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana on the program and Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler dropped altogether. ![]() The unexpected, heavy snowfall that hit Portland on Wednesday, February 23, caused the Oregon Symphony to cancel rehearsals for the following couple of days. Bassist Maggie Carter performed Frank Proto’s “Carmen Fantasy” with Portland Youth Philharmonic.
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