A Less Hedonistic Debussy Arrives

It is the time of year for religious pageants, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which rarely enters into seasonal fare, has got one this week. Yet were the orchestra to really bring off what it is advertising, a dramatization of Debussy’s “Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien,” it might also have a minor scandal on its hands.

“Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien” was described by its author, the mystical poet and fascist patriot, Gabriele d’Annunzio, as a “Mystery in five mansions,” for which Debussy contributed incidental music, in a rush job, for the money. To understand the work, it helps to remember that d’Annunzio’s idea of a mansion was a place for his 100 suits, his gallons of scent and his orgies.

Ultimately, “Saint Sebastien” is a love feast to homoerotic masochism and body piercing. Pain and puncture, contemplated in the heady atmosphere of mystical Christianity and intense incense, are twin paths to sexual ecstasy. When first presented in Paris in 1911, though, it seems mainly to have produced extreme boredom. Proust thought the five-hour production a flop for both poet and musician, but found the bare legs of Ida Rubinstein, who danced in it, sublime.

Despite his ambivalence, Debussy wrote some exceptional orchestral movements for “Saint Sebastian,” that survive as four symphonic fragments (Salonen and the Philharmonic recorded them for Sony four years ago). On Thursday night, however, Salonen turned to all the music Debussy wrote for the production, which includes numbers for three women soloists and chorus. A Finnish director, Juha Hemanus, with whom Salonen frequently collaborates, was brought in to provide lighting, staging, costumes and a dramatic English narration between the musical numbers (the singing is in the original French with projected translations).

The actual set-up on the Dorothy Chandler stage was minimal. As the Christian twins--their torture sets Sebastien dancing on coals in the start of his journey to sainthood--mezzo-sopranos Paula Rasmussen and Nancy Maultsby occupied one side of stage in front of the orchestra. The narrator, Elaine Tse, the other. The soprano Sylvia McNair, as a variety of celestial voices and as Sebastien’s soul, was in a glittering white gown and on a high platform between the orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

But neither Hemanus nor Salonen displayed much affection for the perfumed, licentious atmosphere of d’Annunzio’s Mystery. Hemanus’ narration is just that, more story than poetic effect, and Tse’s performance (crudely amplified) is good but wrong. She works too hard to describe rather than giving in to an otherworldly mood (Leslie Caron, who reads a French narration on Michael Tilson Thomas’ recording of the work, is the ideal).

Salonen, too, has little time for mysticism. But he does find any number of wondrous effects in the music and is absolutely true to the score’s kaleidoscope of colors, exacted from a lavish orchestra that includes three harps. Vocal soloists and chorus, too, are a uniform delight, with McNair in particularly radiant voice. But “Saint Sebastien” is one over-the-top work, and a staging needs to recognize that, as Robert Wilson did a decade ago in his bizarre production for the Paris Opera Ballet. Otherwise, it is better left to an audience’s imagination, text in hand.

“Saint Sebastien,” which lasts a bit more than an hour in this version, came at the second half of a fascinating program of early 20th century music that began with innocence (Ravel’s “La Tombeau de Couperin”) and progressed with a young man’s sexual awaking (Britten’s “Les Illuminations”), before turning to the studied depravity of “Saint Sebastien.”

Salonen, though, was pretty cool about all of this. The Ravel, played with a small orchestra in an unusually decorative manner, was also unusually uncertain sounding. There were beautifully delicate moments but the players did not breathe with conductor, especially when he tried to hold his own breath and suspend the music in air.

Britten’s setting of Rimbaud’s poems at the end of the ‘30s came just as W.H. Auden was making his best effort to lead the young composer astray. There is a small gender-studies industry in Benjamin Britten these days, and “Les Illuminations,” especially when sung by a tenor and one who tries to sound drunk with love and languor, is a prime candidate for the musical psychoanalysts.

But Britten originally wrote it for a soprano, and McNair sang it here all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. No irony. No double-entendre. Just earnest, and quite spectacular, singing. Salonen seconded her, emphasizing the equally spectacular writing for string orchestra, with its instrumental effects of glistening harmonics and striking accents.

The Philharmonic strings, too, seemed to relish this score and especially its solos for the first chair players. Ironically, concertmaster Alexander Treger was here responsible for the most hedonistic element to the whole evening.

* This program will be repeated tonight at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., $8-$63. (213) 850-2000.

* SYMPHONY CENTER

The Chicago Symphony’s venerable home has become a great concert hall. F4