MUSIC REVIEW : Losing Focus of ‘War Requiem’

For the season-ending big bang, which seems necessary to all choral organizations in these parts, William Hall and the Master Chorale of Orange County offered Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem,” with excerpts from Derek Jarman’s film of the same name projected during the performance. Good intentions filled the air.

But Hall’s pairing of film and “Requiem” Saturday in the Orange County Performing Arts Center certainly wasn’t good sense. The images in Jarman’s film--a combination of war footage and acted sequences (including an appearance by Laurence Olivier)--proved profoundly out of sync with the poetry and music of the “Requiem.” Whether this was the filmmaker’s intention (or ineptitude) or a poor selection of excerpts was impossible to tell, but the results were identical.

As tenor and baritone soloists told of some soldiers’ chummy confrontation with Death, we saw a little boy playing a drum and can-can dancers on film. As soprano and chorus sang the tearful, reserved strains of the “Lacrimosa,” we saw a gruesome stabbing scene with characters we didn’t know, and bayonet practice. Etc.

The film served to disturb the careful balance and studied didacticism the composer obtained by the juxtaposition of religious ceremony with Wilfred Owen’s stark poetry of soldierly suffering.

Hall fashioned a strong performance. A mellifluous Jonathan Mack (tenor) and a stalwart Dean Elzinga (baritone) sang Owen’s poetry with sensitivity to word and emotional fervor. The Master Chorale Orchestra played athletically and tidily. The Master Chorale managed both formidable high drama and quiet piety in a confident, generally precise execution. Hall captured the thunder and bleakness of the score with (his usual) flair, and paced the drama expertly.

Only soprano Carol Neblett, gruff down low and resoundingly brilliant up high, disappointed. Her loud theatrics seemed to say, “Don’t mind that film; listen to me!” She did have a point.