VOICES Chorale to perform oratorio
By Anthony Stoeckert, Staff Writer
Classical music lovers are likely familiar with Handel’s “Messiah” and “Israel in Egypt,” but in deciding which piece to perform as part of a tribute to Handel, VOICES Chorale has gone with a lesser-known work.
That would be “Samson,” an oratorio based on the biblical story, which VOICES Chorale will perform March 23, beginning at 3 p.m. at St. James Church in Pennington.
”We choose ‘Samson’ because it had a great story,” said Lyn Ransom, founder and music director for VOICES. “And we know in our area, audiences like to have something that guides them through a performance, especially if it’s unfamiliar music.”
That sometimes can be a well-known section of a piece of music — think the opening of Beethoven’s fifth — but in this case, the story of Samson and Dalila, the Philistines and the Israelites is expected to guide the listeners through two hours of music.
The concert is part of a Handel Festival being presented by two area choral groups — VOICES Chorale and Princeton Pro Musica. It consists of two workshops, two symposiums and two concerts.
”It is meant to make Handel available and accessible to people through various ways of participating,” Dr. Ransom said. “One way to participate is through workshops that we’ve offered for choral singing in how to sing all those runs in Handel choruses, and for solo singers in how to approach a Handel solo.”
The workshops drew about 100 singers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to Dr. Ransom.
The first symposium was held March 6 at the Princeton Public Library and previewed the “Samson” concert. It included a talk by Wendy Heller, professor of music at Princeton, and three arias performed by David Kellet, who is singing Samson for VOICES.
Among the insights Ms. Heller shared during her talk, according to Dr. Ransom, was Handel’s talent as a crowd-pleaser.
”He was a great entertainer as well as a great dramatist,” Dr. Ransom said. “And in ‘Samson’ we see, among all his oratorios, his ultimate skill in creating drama without staging and sets. It was written just at the same time as ‘Messiah.’”
She notes that Handel started work on both pieces in 1741, then went to Dublin for the premiere of “Messiah.” He returned to London in 1742, finished ‘Samson’ and performed it the next year. And although ‘Samson’ isn’t as well known as ‘Messiah,’ the two share much in common, according to Dr. Ransom.
”All the skill and all the pomp and circumstance of the beautiful, somber melodies that we hear in ‘Messiah,’ we also hear in ‘Samson,’” she says. “The difference is that ‘Samson’ is a true drama. There are characters that have cathartic experiences in different acts of the oratorio.”
She says Samson is a more complex character than the commonly known story of the haircut and bringing the temple down. In Handel’s version, it’s Samson’s birthright to be a Nazirite and a man of God. He must vow to never cut his hair, drink wine or be in the presence of a dead person.
”He was born with a prophecy that he was to be a Nazirite and he honored that,” Dr. Ransom says.
In the first act of Handel’s work, Samson is captured by the Philistines after his wife Dalila (sung by Miriam Chaudoir) has cut off his hair. He is in prison, and on public view. Loved ones visit him, Philistines taunt him.
”There’s a little bit of self-pity and some acceptance of his fate because it’s God’s plan,” Dr. Ransom says.
Dalila appears in Act 2. Even though she has betrayed him, she sings of missing him and wanting to take care of him.
”She sings a beautiful song and it melts your heart,” Dr. Ransom said. “You don’t like Dalila because she’s cut his hair off and betrayed him to the enemy, to the Philistines, but at the same time, she comes out singing these two gorgeous arias to get Samson to relent and take her back.”
One of those arias is titled “With plaintive notes,” and lines such as “With plaintive notes and am’rous moan, Thus coos the turtle left alone.”
”The melodies Handel gives to the violins in this piece are especially well crafted and beautiful,” Dr. Ransom said.
In “My faith and truth,” Dalila makes a case for her love, and asks for Samson’s forgiveness. There is then a duet between Dalila and Samson, “Traitor to love.”
”We hear the sparks fly,” Dr. Ransom says of “Traitor to love.” “I think the audience will sense that there is still some electricity between them.”
Audiences will be torn about Dalila, she says, because she has been a bad person, “but she comes on with this beautiful music and with a humble attitude. And Samson says, ‘No, get away from me. I loved you and you betrayed me, this is not what I want,” Dr. Ransom says. “It can’t happen, don’t touch me, don’t come near me.’ So you have this real standoff between the two of them and you have a very exciting duet where they sort of blame each other for what’s happened, and then eventually Dalila gives up and goes away.
That, she says offers a different side of Samson, as he fights back as a man and husband, not giving into Dalila and her loving music.
”We also see Samson railing against God,” Dr. Ransom says. “In his first aria, he talks about being blind and not seeing the sun.” He asks God why he isn’t supporting him, and helping him stop the Philistines.
”It’s a completely different and very angry aria … It’s phenomenal to listen to David sing this,” she says.
Another question the piece raises is whether Samson lacks intelligence, which led to him falling into traps, or does he do everything on purpose to fulfill God’s will.
”The Philistines, who are Dalila’s people, send a messenger, the giant called Harapha, to say, ‘we want you to come and be a clown at our festival,’” Dr. Ransom said. “Samson refuses to be put on display for their God. Later he sings and changes his mind, and goes of his free will. And that’s when he starts to get his strength back.
”Some people think that is all part of his plan, to be a martyr and to free the Israelites and he knew all along what he wanted to do,” Dr. Ransom says.
So what led to a Handel festival that offers not only concerts but workshops for singers?
”I’ve just been noticing how many good singers there are in this area,” Dr. Ransom said. “And how many people are good and also interested in other things? They’re interested in history, and they’re interested in voice teachers and various techniques, they’re interested in composers, especially composers whose name are familiar.”
And with so much available to professional singers in this area — at Westminster Choir College as well as Philadelphia and New York — she wanted to offer workshops to the area’s amateur singes.
”It turned out to be something that really hit home,” she said, adding that participants in the workshop at the library were appreciated in the focus on singing Handel well.
”It seemed to fill a need at the end of winter when people are ready to go out and do something,” she said. “We did this with Princeton Pro Musica, and they turned out to be wonderful partners. We’re thinking of doing it again next year since the response has been so strong from the singers.”
St. James Church is located at 115 E. Delaware Ave. in Pennington. Tickets to the concert cost $30. For more information, go to www.voiceschorale.org.
The festival will continue April 28 with a Symposium on “Israel in Egypt,” at the Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon St., Princeton. Princeton Pro Musica will perform “Israel in Egypt,” May 11 in Richardson Auditorium on the Princeton University campus. For more information, go to www.princetonpromusica.org.