Anima Mundi’s concert at the SOU Recital Hall shone like a diamond
Never in a night so pure
Have we loved each other so much
— From a poem by Édouard Guinand
By Lucie K. Scheuer
Anima Mundi Productions concert, “The Meaning of Love,” presented with a touch of splendor at SOU’s Recital Hall on Sunday, Feb. 18, was a journey through the sublime. It shone like a multifaceted diamond of music and poetry, capturing the light, beauty, and kaleidoscopic visions of love in several of its mysterious forms: Romantic Love, Love for Humanity, Love for the Earth, and Love for the Divine.
The concert celebrated the opal lure of the moon, the healing of dark forests in nature, the longing for love and the journey of the soul as it seeks to merge with its cosmic progenitor. It contained the poetry, angelic voices and visions of several local and Oregon-based artists and composers, evolving into a transformational experience. It began with a show tune and ended with a hymn.
Real love on the stage
“The Meaning of Love” featured the soaring, seraphic voice of superbly studied soprano Jocelyn Claire Thomas and the richly toned, perfectly modulated vocal expressions of baritone Zachary Lenox. Currently living and performing in the Portland area, Thomas and Lenox are husband and wife, which added a joyous, intimate layer to this célébration de l’amour.
Accompanying these two virtuosic performances, was versatile pianist and organist Jodi French, staff accompanist with the SOU music department. French’s ability to move from one esoteric piece to another, each with a completely different range of sound, timing and nuance, was inspiring.
The concert also featured the world premiere performances of two moving tone poems by celebrated composer Ethan Gans-Morse, and the melodious “The Tree Song,” which movingly celebrates the longevity and resilience a tree offers in its essence. Sung as a duet, it was written by Ashland resident and award-winning film and TV songwriter Michael Silversher. There were also three mystical poems by Ashland’s unofficial poet laureate, Tiziana DellaRovere, who is also a librettist and co-founder of Anima Mundi along with Gans-Morse. Her lyrical poems convey desire, seeking and longing against the backdrop of night.
The program also highlighted the music of Broadway composers Steven Sondheim and Steven Schwartz, classical music’s Vaughn Williams, and Antonin Dvořák’s achingly beautiful “Song to the Moon,” sung by Thomas. Also featured were were a range of poems, read in their native languages by honored guests proficient in Latin languages and German. Some had English subtitles, others were interpreted in song.
Romantic Love
The concert opened with Lenox grabbing everyone’s attention with his expressive “Youth and Love” from “Songs of Travel” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Thomas and Lenox then shared their wedding story with the audience. This was followed by two duets, “Till There Was You” by Meredith Willson and “One Hand, One Heart,” (sung at their wedding) from “Westside Story.” The two are a perfectly matched duo, sailing through songs with ease.
Love for Humanity
This section featured the odd but touching “God Help the Outcasts,” from the “Hunchback of Notre Dame” by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, sung by Thomas. It was followed by the World Premiere of Gans-Morse’s “War and Love,” inspired by DellaRovere poem. Sung as a duet, this is a dark, evolving piece that musically liberates. It is a fascinating composition, with dissonant chords that lead to major. Gans-Morse’s score and DellaRovere’s words hold hands, moving the listener away from devastation to a place of hope.
Love for the Earth
Each piece of music and poem in this segment focused on nature’s renewal, from Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, “Let Beauty Awake,” to “A Travers Bois” (through the woods) read by Marianne Golding. Silversher’s “The Tree Song” begins with the soprano and baritone singing complimentary parts, which blend into an operatic duet that is mesmerizing. The tree sings to its grower: “It is you who planted me; I remain your loving tree.” The tree reminds the grower of their symbiotic relationship and promises it will stand for generations.
Love for the Divine
Gans-Morse’s “En una noche oscura” (Dark Night of the Soul), sung by Thomas and based on the poem by St. John of the Cross, possesses the feel of Gregorian chant. As the organ carries her along, the music suddenly peaks in crescendo that is nothing short of brilliant. Gans-Morse himself explains. “So, I decided instead to employ the organ as her accompaniment. The organ reinforces several metaphors: sometimes it echoes her, stretched out beyond linear time and space, as if every note she sings is suspended in air for a time.”
As the monk cries out to become one with his creator, there are sections that are brooding and a bit melancholy. The piece might have fared better, placed earlier. There were moments when Thomas’ voice and breathwork became a bit labored, but she had already sung several vocally challenging pieces, that would have been difficult for any accomplished lyric soprano to sustain.
“Dreams Have No Borders,” a filmed version of a new opera by composer Gans-Morse and librettist DellaRovere, based on stories collected within the Latino community of Southern Oregon, is coming to the Varsity Theatre on June 23. If it contains anything like the musical conscience and profound poetry of this production, it will surely be worth experiencing.
Reach Ashland-based writer Lucie K. Scheuer at [email protected].
