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All those little black dots…

Posted by DCA Theater on July 1, 2009 in Other, Summer Opera

Submitted by Stephen Raskauskas, Production Dramaturge

In many baroque operas, including those by Handel, the standard formula throughout the performance is as follows; songs called da capo arias express a character’s emotions while half-spoken, half-sung recitative propels action and carries dialogue.  Occasionally, an opera will begin and end with a chorus, and even more rarely, duets, trios, and other ensemble numbers are scattered throughout.  While Acis and Galatea contains a fair amount of solo arias and some recitative, the chorus plays a very important role throughout the entire story, not only beginning and ending the opera, but also providing commentary along the way.  Even more unique than standard baroque choruses, the choruses in Acis and Galatea sing multiple melodies at the same time (polyphony), often with different texts, like in the example below from the chorus “Wretched lovers”:

Click here to enlarge

This presents unique challenges for our chorus, since polyphonic music is usually reserved for church music, allowing choristers to read directly from sheet music while standing stationary in a choir loft.  However, the chorus of Acis and Galatea must navigate Handel’s elaborate webs of counterpoint completely from memory while also moving around on stage.  Click “Read More” to get an inside look at what it’s like to memorize “all those little black dots” from baritone Brad Jungwirth.

To hear a chorus from Acis and Galatea on YouTube, click here.

To see Handel’s polyphonic choruses directly in the score, click here.

Let me first say how much I love Handel’s music—I’m a big fan of many of his operas, and the way he uses vocal fireworks or simple melodies to highlight the drama at hand is always remarkable. However, I’m glad rehearsals don’t start for another few days as I still have a lot of work to do on the music!  Learning the music isn’t a problem for me—I like to fancy myself a strong musician, so the task of learning my part isn’t what is difficult….it is the memorizing that I’m grappling with.  Handel uses a very minimal amount of text in each scene or aria, and although this concentration of emotion is beautifully effective, it can make the music a beast to memorize.  The same text is sung multiple times on a variety of music gestures, many of which are confusingly similar to each other in any given scene, so remembering just what line of music you’re supposed to sing can be difficult, especially when you don’t have a variety of text to keep you tethered to the music.  Words are really what helps me to memorize music, so when the musical material abounds and the words are at a minimum, my little brain gets a tad confused.

Memorization issues aside, I’m very thrilled the production team and our conductor have opted to have the chorus sung by soloists, one on each part.  Not only is this more in line with what Handel originally intended, but it adds a greater sense of clarity to the music.  You can hear each individual line sung by an individual voice which enables the listener to trace how the parts interweave and play off of each other.  It also provides a sense of freedom to the performers, as each singer can sing with their own voice and not alter this sound in order to blend in with the 20 others singing the same line (which would be the case in a larger chorus).

In general, I’m just excited to be singing Handel in the summertime…..his music, especially that of “Acis and Galatea,” often sounds to me like “musical sunshine,” and I can’t think of a better time of year to wallow in such pastoral and evocative music.  Add that to the beauty of Preston Bradley Hall and Millennium Park, and the result should be something special, indeed.