Music Reviews : Cambridge Singers Offer ‘Dido and Aeneas’

One certainly couldn’t fault the Cambridge Singers for lack of ambition. The group’s program Sunday at Pasadena Presbyterian Church included not only an entire opera, Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” but also what was billed as the West Coast premiere of a sizable Vaughan Williams cantata, “Epithalamion.”

Happily, the performances lived up to the undertaking, as music director Alexander Ruggieri led the 40-voice, Los Angeles-based choir in communicative, solidly executed readings.

For this concert performance of “Dido and Aeneas” Ruggieri assembled, along with a small, solid pick-up orchestra, a guest quartet of vocal soloists, while members of the choir took on the smaller, though by no means undemanding, roles with considerable panache. In mass, the choir sang with robust energy and pointed accentuation.

Sondra Stowe offered a golden-hued, somewhat restrained Dido, seemingly saving up for the Lament, which she sang with vivid emotionalism. Mary Rawcliffe sang sweetly and gracefully as Belinda and Edward Levy proved a stalwart Aeneas. Ellen Rabiner revealed a sizable, richly timbred contralto as the Sorceress.

The second half consisted of “Epithalamion,” a 30-minute setting of Spenser’s “The Bridal Day.” It is consistently, perhaps a little wearily, celebratory in character, thickly scored and propelled by folk-dance rhythms.

Levy revealed a well-focused, pointedly lyrical baritone in his solos. Ruggieri allowed the orchestra to overbalance the choir too often, but the reading lacked nothing in vigor or earnestness.