Part of Il Pomo d’Oro’s current European tour, this concert with Maxim Emelyanychev carried with it something of the air of a grand star occasion thanks to Joyce DiDonato’s appearance as Purcell’s Dido, a role her many admirers have long waited to hear her perform. In the event, however, she was effectively the leader of a fine ensemble, as it proved to be an evening of superb singing across the board, both solo and choral, as well as a remarkable vindication of the work chosen as Dido and Aeneas’s companion piece, Giacomo Carissimi’s brief but devastating oratorio Jephte, written around 1650.
DiDonato was, as one might expect, magnificent in a role that suits her down to the ground, probing Dido’s desire and anguish with singing of characteristically understated subtlety. An initial darkness in her tone, first heard at the mention of being “pressed with torment”, gradually and almost imperceptibly brightened as Dido’s love for Aeneas (Andrew Staples) grew, only to return at the close with wrenching finality as she greeted death as “a welcome guest”. Equally telling was her fearsome way with the outburst of rage and wounded pride with which she dismisses him, even as she knows that doing so will destroy her.
Staples, a tenor Aeneas rather the usual baritone, sounded nobly ardent at the start, his passion giving way to doubt when fate and witchcraft intervene to drive the lovers apart. Beth Taylor as the Sorceress exuded a malign majesty, venomously etching the text as she summoned her cackling, slightly camp subordinates (Alena Dantcheva and Anna Piroli) and the eerie Spirit (Hugh Cutting, insidiously beautiful) who compels Aeneas to leave. Fatma Said, the elegant Belinda, sounded lovely but could at times have done more with the words. The playing was first rate. Emelyanychev directed from the harpsichord with great finesse, though he deployed far more percussion than we usually hear in this work: the thunder effects that introduced the Sorceress seemed a bit excessive, I’m afraid.
The great revelation, however, was the singing of the recently formed Il Pomo d’Oro Choir, immaculately balanced and focused throughout, gracious and heartfelt in the Purcell, and if anything even more affecting in Jephte. It’s an extraordinary work in many ways. Carissimi strips the biblical narrative down to its essentials: a brief account of Jephte’s disastrous pact with God; his colloquy with the daughter he now finds he must sacrifice in exchange for victory in battle; and her plaint that she must die young and a virgin. Staples and Carlotta Colombo superbly captured the intense, quiet anguish of this tragic pair, though what drives the work are its choral commentaries on the narrative, culminating in Plorate Filii Israel, a lament of quite extraordinary beauty, breathtakingly sung here, and absolutely unforgettable.
