MUSIC REVIEW : Reid Conducts ‘Elijah’ at Orange Coast College

“Elijah,” the second and more notable of Mendelssohn’s contributions to the oratorio form, is by no means the longest of works in that genre. It just seems like it sometimes.

Saturday evening was one of those times. Completing his first season as conductor of the Orange Coast Chorale, Ted Reid presided over a reasonably clean but ultimately unmemorable reading of the work at Orange Coast College.

To the title role, baritone Mel Whitehead brought a high level of musical accuracy, textual clarity and good projection--although the quality of his sound became thinner, and his pitch less secure, when the tessitura rose. What he did not bring was a sense of poetic insight that would give the listener a sense of emotion and unraveling drama. Mendelssohn’s score, alas, does not do that by itself.

The same drawback applied to the choruses--of which this oratorio has many. The singing here, too, proved energized and, for the most part, technically accomplished.

But Reid showed little concern for the details of the text; his phrasing in the popular “He, watching over Israel,” for instance, suggests that he failed to take the time to study his score thoroughly from a textual standpoint.

Perhaps he hadn’t thoroughly studied “Elijah,” period. He buried his head in the score much of the time (even in the more familiar choruses), and during some of the recitatives, he seemed unable to stay in sync with the singer.

Tenor Dale Tracy, the most convincing of the soloists, sang with poise and conviction. His sound proved clear and vibrant in all registers, and he shaped each phrase tellingly.

Mezzo Elizabeth Saunders Gomez’s voice did not project well, and she produced a dark, muddy sound which made textual comprehension a lost cause, but she exhibited an intelligent sense of musical line and admirable vocal control. Soprano Laura Fries sang with buoyancy and grace, a few pitch problems notwithstanding.

The 39-piece orchestra provided solid support throughout, without overpowering the singers.