MUSIC REVIEW : Sparsely Attended ‘Creation’ on Easter in Orange County

Suppose they played the “Creation” and nobody came. It nearly happened Sunday afternoon at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Keith Clark, the embattled incipient ex-conductor of the Pacific Symphony, had a nice idea. He wanted to perform Haydn’s classic oratorio as a special non-subscription event for Easter. The celebrants in and around Costa Mesa, unfortunately, thought they had better things to do.

Advance sales proved so disastrous that symphony authorities decided near the last minute to offer any seat in the house for $10. What’s more, children, at this odd incarnation of a kiddies’ show, would be admitted free.

Spokesmen for the orchestra claimed that at least a third of the 2,994 seats would be filled. To the untrained eye, that seemed like an optimistic estimate.

Segerstrom Hall resembled a sea of empty places. Even worse, it sounded like the world’s biggest, nastiest echo chamber. If one didn’t happen to savor a tone the first time, one could always hope for improvement when the tone came ricocheting back, and back, and back . . . .

It is admittedly difficult to make beautiful music in a vacant space. Still, the blatant quirks of this vaunted hall become more disturbing with every visit. Surely it is time to call back the engineers for a drastic acoustical checkup.

Under the bizarre sonic circumstances, this “Creation” awakened memories of concerts given within vast cathedral vaults. The music-making, however, suggested the sort of Haydn one is more likely to encounter in a well-intentioned academic institution.

The performance was nice, reasonably solid. It was ambitious. It was serious. It was dull.

Clark chose unnecessarily small forces--a chorus of 40 and a chamber orchestra to match. One suspected the choice related to a quest for economy rather than a quest for intimacy.

He conducted with taste and with workmanlike dedication. After a particularly ponderous instrumental prelude (in which the strings introduced the pitch problems that were to remain a constant plague), he proceeded to establish brisk tempos and to dispatch efficient cues. He sustained a generalized focus, without plumbing emotional depths, without offering ethereal lyrical insights or inspiring great dramatic flights.

The orchestra, minus its regular concertmaster, sounded rough and unready. The Roger Wagner Chorale sounded eager but a bit scraggly. The soloists, though competent, sounded bland.

Evelyn de la Rosa sang the music of Gabriel and Eve with poise and sweetness occasionally compromised by stridency. Jonathan Mack sang Uriel with his customary finesse, despite some unaccustomed constriction. Peter Van Derick mastered the range extremes of Raphael and Adam with resonant aplomb.

The normally clap-happy audience greeted the end of part one with stony silence. Applause came only after Clark turned and made a pithy announcement: “We’ll now have intermission.”

Perhaps the unresponsive crowd--one uses the noun advisedly--was confused because the management managed to print one translation and use another. One couldn’t tell one’s place in the oratorio even with a program.