The Bach Festival presented Tuesday a concert by the Accademia de’dissonanti, a Quebec ensemble led by Mélisande McNabney, which welcomed the renowned Italian mezzo Sonia Prina, a singer who was, unfortunately, only a shadow of herself.
Before talking about the disappointment of the evening, it is important to highlight the positive points. The Bourgie Hall is full, a new full hall for the Bach Festival in a very difficult period (many institutions have noticed a decline since mid-October).
In other words, the lesser-known local baroque ensemble, the Accademia de’dissonanti, had double the number of spectators as I Gemelli, a world reference in its field, at the same place a week earlier. This means that the basic idea of the Bach Festival of mixing the best of local musicians with elite international guests does not consist, as evil spirits had insinuated, of filling programs by using little of what is done here, but on the contrary to help and promote the cause of the best Quebec musicians by associating them with an event with a prestigious international flavor.
In the case of the Accademia de’dissonanti this form of “consecration” is deserved. Aesthetically, Mélisande McNabney and her group advocate a tasteful, balanced baroque, without expressive exaggerations. In the String Concerto RV 114 of Vivaldi we hear the clear, but not excessive, impulses of the lower strings, while the harpsichord illuminates the final chaconne. In the Sonata No. 5 by Georg Muffat the voices are well individualized in the Passacaille which also manages the volumes very well. The instrumental performance is excellent in this ensemble led by violinists Alexander Read and Olivier Brault. We also find Elinor Frey on cello within this very coherent group.
Discolored voice
The guest of honor at this concert was the Italian mezzo Sonia Prina, 47 years old. Colleague of Marie-Nicole Lemieux (one year separates them) Sonia Prina is an essential protagonist of the numerous Vivaldi and Handel discographic completes published over the last two decades. Lemieux and Prina rubbed shoulders in a magical recording, Rodelinda by Handel by Alan Curtis (Archiv). To know what the “normal” level of this singer is, you have to hear her tune “Lo faro, diro”, in this recording. You can also go to YouTube to watch extracts from the concert of La Resurrezione by Händel given with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm on October 31, 2014.
What we heard Tuesday evening has nothing to do with it. But really nothing at all. The singer coughed repeatedly. But we were not told that she was ill. Yet it seemed that this was the case. In the Stabat Mater of Vivaldi, everything above the passing note was flat, discolored, dried up non-resonant, as if Prina was voiceless or emerging from aphonia.
So, with lots of contortions, the singer took refuge in her comfort zone, where she could make her voice resonate, overplaying the expression to the point of caricature. That said, a diminished artist who does not look for excuses and thus throws herself body and soul into the battle deserves respect.
What was less respectable was the farce of the Cantata “Widerstehe doch der Sünde” by Bach: it looked like a parody of Anna Russell parodying a Bach cantata. There, for once, regardless of any state of health, there is a style, an outfit, a relationship with the text, an aesthetic to respect.
We had seen enough signs of too obvious disrepair not to want to suffer as a bonus. In Furore » at the end of the concert. The profile of this work necessarily suited the singer’s temperament better than Bach’s cantata. And so what ?