MUSIC REVIEW : Banchieri’s ‘Barca da Venezia’ at Second Baroque Festival Concert

Programming is the bane of all who would mount a Baroque series or, more courageously, a Baroque festival. But it has not stopped Burton Karson, founder and artistic director of the Corona del Mar Baroque Festival, now in the midst of an eighth June season.

An uncompromising curiosity has marked Karson’s approach to repertory in these eight years. One quick glance at the 1988 programs confirms that fact: A mini-survey of the works of Tomaso Albinoni, as well as the expected revivals of more familiar pieces by Bach and Handel, informs the current repertory.

And Wednesday night, in the charming setting of the Sherman Library and Gardens in the beachside community, a revival of Adriano Banchieri’s madrigal comedy, “La Barca da Venezia per Padova” (1605; revised 1623) showed again some of the benefits of such curiosity, at the second festival event of the week.

A tight collection of 20 Renaissance-style madrigals forming an entertainment less than an hour in length, this amusing relic from the early decades of opera pleases on several music and dramatic levels. With an English narration--in a clear and understandable translation by Maria King--given before each item, this performance, conducted authoritatively by Karson, emerged pleasing and authentic.

More aggressive and more strongly delineated singing would have helped. The quintet of proto-professional vocalists here gathered--Susan Montgomery, Eileen O’Hern, Steven Dunham, Mark Feiner and Paul Linnes--showed good promise, undamaged voices, a willingness to interact, but very short projection of personality. Considering the many opportunities for display and text-coloration rampant in Banchieri’s ship of fools, these developing artists missed the boat.

They were assisted gamely by cellist Richard Treat, harpsichordist Ronald Huntington. Veteran festival supporter Irmeli Desenberg was the narrator.