THE CHRIST CHILD, WITH LATINO PERSPECTIVES
STANFORD, CA—A touring concert version of John Adams’ Christmas oratorio showed both strengths and weaknesses as presented here by AMOC, alias the Julia-Christian show.
The touring version, “El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered” had to be streamlined, deleting the original film supplement to “El Niño,” along with some of its impact portraying the plight of today’s migrating Latinos as seen through the lens of the Bible. It is a close-to-the-vest neoclassical piece crying out loudly for a choral component. Adams’ closest “relative” among composers of the past is Igor Stravinsky, whose great rhythmic acumen always surpassed his melodiousness.
The current AMOC version is propelled like a torrent by the voluminous voice of the incredible star artist Julia Bullock, reminiscent of the heyday of the late Jesse Norman, neatly straddling most of the mezzo and soprano range. These two artists could shake heaven and earth with their glorious enveloping fortissimos. Also a polyglot, Bullock dips richly into texts featuring both women and Spanish-speaking poets, giving a modern-day look to the ancient Holy-Family story, drawn in part from the apocrypha. Pairing in pristine duets with her is the Latino contralto Jasmin White, further supplemented by soloists Davone Tines, bass-baritone, and Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor. The concert leaned strongly on the bilingual projection of texts, with Spanish and English ping-ponging unpredictably back and forth between singers, featuring among the texts the poetry of Rosario Castellanos.
When the libretto takes up the anti-Christ King Herod’s murder of children, Castellanos’ poetry alludes both to the old Mexican goddess Tlazolteotl as well as the 1968 police attacks on Tlatelolco student protestors, with AMOC’s music running amok in sheer horror. It’s all old, but it’s new too in its allusions.
Adams’ score catches fire with the hard-fiddled tremolos and ringing bell of Christian Reif’s 19-member touring orchestra, resonant in furious intensity. The husband of Bullock, Reif calmly propelled the subdued rhythms of the ensemble, also producing the run-away Adams vehemence where needed. When understated, the orchestra enabled focusing on the varied libretto crafted by Peter Sellars.
This piece, brilliant in its linkages of old-new as well as the multi-national references, deserves a broader holiday-seasonal hearing. Maybe with optional chorus added by composer Adams and textmaster Sellars?
MUSIC NOTES—This work is often produced for settings in places of worship…. If the patrons scattered around the Bing Concert Hall felt short-changed, it was from the double whammy: The entire concert ran just under one hour, when chamber-orchestral works could easily have introduced a full concert package; also Stanford is refraining from printed programs at Bing, as part of reducing waste paper. Patrons must make do squinting at in-house QR code readouts on their smartphones which, if left in your car, also leave you out in left field or beyond.
Brave new world.
“El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered” by Adams and Sellars, performed by AMOC, the American Modern Opera Company Dec. 13 at Bing Concert Hall, Stanford. For the Stanford Live concert series, call (650) 724-2464 or go online, www.live.stanford.edu.
