Hallelujah Project 2013
Highlow variety hours Santa Barbara Choral Society’s ‘Hallelujah Project’ is a crowdpleaser
By JOSEF WOODARD, NEWSPRESS CORRESPONDENT
December 22, 2013 12:19 AM
Santa Barbara’s choral music fans may be going through a touch of “Messiah” withdrawal this year. Handel’s great “Messiah,” that Baroque staple of the Christmas season, was heard in half its length a year ago, in concert by the Santa Barbara Choral Society.
This year, all we got was the brief, detached “Hallelujah Chorus,” programmed as a strangely outofcontext confection as the second piece in the group’s crowdpleaser variety program at the Lobero Theatre last weekend cleverly named “The Hallelujah Project.” Heavier doses of Handel will have to wait for another year.
Overall, the musical fare was light on the ears and senses, and geared more towards a general audience compared to more serious musical holiday shows presented by the group.
The concept, which played out nicely in the sparkling new renovated space of the Lobero, drew generous audiences and kept spirits on the light side. Those of us seeking to bask in the more substantial end of the choral music spectrum had to succumb to the festivities, knowing the serious matters will return to the group’s agenda.
With a large component of instrumentalists and singers densely packing the Lobero stage, the program mixed morsels of seriousness —such as bass DeAndre Simmons singing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” — with Hollywood ear candies, such as film composer king John Williams’ “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,” to open the second half.
Santa Barbara Choral Society tenor Eduardo Villa sings “Born in Bethlehem” during Sunday’s Hallelujah Project show at the Lobero Theatre.
Tenor Eduardo Villa, who grew up in Santa Barbara and has matriculated through the world’s finer opera houses, graced us with a lovely tune, “Born in Bethlehem,” by his grandfather, and John Rutter’s “Esta Noche.”
For this occasion, actually, the fine and large Choral Society chorus, directed for 21 years now by JoAnne Wasserman, wasn’t given as much of a spotlight as we might hope for.
They did, however, usher in some outoftheseasonal repertoirebox intrigue with the performance of three Spanish Carols from the 16th century, blessed by soloist turns by Carol Tsai, Christine Hollinger, Kristen Aylesworth, Travis Stehmeier, Steven Murphy and Mr. Simmons.
Another strong choral moment arrived with Ola Gjello’s arrangement of “Away in a Manger,” its alternative melody sung by the Santa Barbara Children’s Choir, with the adult choral forces supplying entrancing hummed chords, as harmonic swaddling.
In another Hollywood connection once removed, with local ties, actress, novelist, bon vivant longtime Santa Barbara resident, showed up in her pajamas — in character, as a grandmother — reading “The Night Before Christmas” to her young grandchildren onstage, while the amiable sounds of Philip Lane’s orchestral soundtrack nuzzled up around the famous words, and a Santa Claus scampered onstage, up the aisles, and put the Lobero’s inhouse Christmas tree to good proptime use.
This Santa lurked by the theater’s exit (driveby traffic on Anacapa must have wondered if he had been locked out), and burst back inside the theater in just in time to bellow the kindly finale to the story: “Merry Christmas to all, and too all a good night.” Hear, hear.
American baritone, Ralph Cato has travelled the world extensively, telling stories in song with his warm, clarion baritone voice.
Tenor, Benjamin Brecher has performed over fifty operatic roles with many of the world’s most prestigious opera companies, specializing in the high lying lyric tenor repertoire. He has performed 16 roles with New York City Opera alone. Career highlights include performances with Opera Orchestra of New York, L’Opera de Nice, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, L’Opera de Montreal, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among many others. His orchestral solo repertoire includes Mozart, Handel, Orff, Bach, Haydn, as well as many performances of Britten. In 2000 he began performing the great Irish Tenor songs in a concert produced for him entitled A Celtic Celebration, Twenty years later, the show has become a North American hit with performances with 45 Symphonies in North America. Ben continues his discography having added his twelfth recording in 2016 Forgotten Liszt, with pianist Robert Koenig, and will record a new release in 2022 entitled “Three Centuries of Thomas Moore” including the music of Britten, Berlioz, and Sarah Gibson on MSR Classics. He is a Professor of Voice at University of California Santa Barbara, where he has served as the Head of Voice.
Tracy Van Fleet is pleased to return to the Santa Barbara Choral Society. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lüneburg Symphony in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Mexico, Pasadena Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Los Angeles Bach Festival, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, USC Symphony and Chorus, and others. She has had many appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Opera Pacific, San Diego Opera and Opera Colorado.
Born and raised in Southern California, April Amante is a versatile soprano with expertise and facility in repertoire spanning from early music to contemporary musical theater.