OPERA REVIEW : Bates Mounts a Decent Showcase for the Modest Charms of ‘Dido and Aeneas’

For less obvious reasons, early-music performance in San Diego County is about as popular as ice fishing. Though a modest circle of aficionados presents occasional chamber concerts, opportunities to hear large works by composers who flourished before the time of J. S. Bach are rare.

Seen in this light, conductor David Bates’ mounting of a concert version of Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” at La Jolla United Methodist Church on Sunday night was both a brave and a commendable venture.

Tipping his hat to authenticity, he imported the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra to accompany a cadre of local soloists. Bowing to more pragmatic requirements, he employed the church’s 40-voice Sanctuary Choir to sing the opera’s chorus parts.

Because “Dido and Aeneas” was originally presented in a London girls’ boarding school, rather than in a sumptuous court opera house, a church performance is not as unlikely as it may appear.

All things considered, the performance proved to be a reasonable exposition of the 300-year-old opera’s charms, modest as they are. Martha Jane Weaver sang a dignified Dido, her dusky mezzo-soprano seemingly tailor-made for a role of such stoic despairing. She projected her phrases in long, graceful arches, and her final aria communicated admirable pathos.

As Belinda, Dido’s lady-in-waiting, soprano Mary-Esther Nicola-Peck added an animated and tastefully ornamented foil to Weaver’s gravity.

Other notable vocal contributions included baritone John Polhamus’ suitably stolid Aeneas and a spritely witches’ duet filled with well-turned roulades sung by soprano Martha Hamilton and countertenor Michael Cox. Elizabeth Kimery’s Sorceress, however, vacillated between melodramatic wobbles and less than Baroque shrieks.

Stage director Thomas Richardson provided minimal movement for the principals. While this allowed the singers to move on and off stage according to the needs of the libretto, some of his gestures and poses appeared unintentionally comedic. As Weaver slowly extended her arm in the solemn aria that begins, “Thy hand, Belinda,” Nicola-Peck scampered to her side like Mozart’s infatuated Cherubino bounding over to kiss the countess’ hand.

Though the well-trained choir displayed a pleasant tone and clean diction, it lacked a sense of 17th-Century style, especially in terms of phrasing and metrical accent. On the podium, Bates could have done with less body language and more focused conducting, but he kept his forces together and moving ahead at a brisk pace.

Under the leadership of concertmaster Gregory Maldonado, the 11 instrumentalists of the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra opened the program with an instrumental suite from Purcell’s “King Arthur.” This period instrument ensemble lacked no sympathy for the composer’s angular, short-phrased style, although the group’s uneven releases marred the clean ensemble.