Bowl’s Acoustics Spoil Philharmonic’s Repeat of Hit Spanish Program

It must have seemed a sure-fire idea. Take a hit program from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and repeat it at the Hollywood Bowl.

But just as some movies lose impact when transferred to a format for the smaller screen, the same thing can happen when the telescope is turned the other way.

This was the case when Miguel Harth-Bedoya led the Los Angeles Philharmonic and six dancers from the Ballet Nacional de Espan~a in an evening of Spanish music over the weekend at the famous outdoor amphitheater.

These were the same forces in essentially the same program of music ranging from Albeniz to Sarasate that made near-legendary impact in February at the Pavilion.

In addition to Harth-Bedoya, returning artists included dancers Lola Greco, Francisco Velasco, Alvaro Lopez-Galiacho, Esther Montoro, Nieves Roche Noguera and Jose Porcel, plus members of the Pasadena City Ballet Company.

Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” and a flirtatious dance sequence from Barbieri’s “El barberillo de Lavapies” were dropped, but a brand-new flamenco scene-setting prelude to Falla’s “El amor brujo” was added. Adam del Monte was the guitarist. Marisole Fuentes was the flamenco singer, but mezzo-soprano Susanna Guzman sang the solos in Falla’s score, which followed.

The problem Friday was aural, not visual.

*

Noguera projected the image of a suffering woman in “Danza del fuego” from Luna’s “Benamor” with such pristine, unruffled clarity and emotional intensity that it burned with laser-clarity from the stage though row after row of Bowl boxes to who knows where. You probably could have seen it from the moon.

So too the regal and sensuous authority of Velasco--who could cut diamonds in the floor with his plumb-line compass turns or repeat, then embellish Sarasate’s intricate rhythms (Zapateado, Opus 23, No. 2) in solo footwork. Velasco did slip momentarily at the termination of a turn in the air, but you can be sure it was due to dampness on the stage from the cool night air.

In her solo from Granados’ “Goyescas” as well as the major role of Candelas in Hector Zaraspe’s choreography for Falla’s “El amor brujo,” Greco worked at a level of detail in characterization and movement that vanquished distance.

Porcel was the hyperkinetic ghost. Fortunately, in the final group encore at the end of the program, he would have an opportunity to show his considerable virtuosic dance abilities. Montoro, Noguera and Lopez-Galiacho looked striking as Candelas’ faithful friends.

Incidentally, these dancers probably would have been gratified if they had been identified in the program booklet by their roles and not just their names.

Falla’s famous “Ritual Fire Dance,” which brought in the young Pasadena dancers as a mute, incantatory chorus, proved even more eerie on the wider, outdoor stage than it had been in the Pavilion.

These were all artists who knew how to adjust the scale of their work to fill their environment.

*

No, the barrier was the amplification system designed to deal with the Bowl’s problematic acoustics. You know something is wrong when a snare drum sounds like someone scraping across the slats of a wood-backed chair. When you can hear highs and lows but no middle. When you might as well be at a drive-in listening through a car speaker.

All the subtlety, richness and depth, and much of the brilliance, wit and characterization of the music had to be taken on faith or remembered fondly from the February concert. Yet no one thought that the Philharmonic was playing any less well.

Harth-Bedoya was the same magnetic, galvanizing force and again delivered endearing and always clear program notes from the podium.

Concertmaster Martin Chalifour and principal cellist Daniel Rothmuller played solo passages sweetly, in so far as they could be heard. Guzman’s mezzo sounded dry at the bottom but richer and more expressive in the middle. Again, could this be a fair hearing, given the tunnel nature of the sound we heard?

Recent news that Bowl administrators are investigating ways of improving the acoustics with a new shell design, however controversial, is cause for rejoicing in at least one quarter.

There were several encores: the Interlude and Spanish Dance from Falla’s “La Vida Breve” and--with the six principal dancers--the Intermezzo from Gimenez’s “La boda de Luis Alonso.”