Raising the Countertenor Standard

A countertenor opera star no longer seems counterintuitive. Pushing the male voice up to the alto and soprano range certainly has its unnatural side--most of the great roles for it were written in the Baroque era for castrated males. But as Gregory Maldonado, the music director of the L.A. Baroque Orchestra, writes in the latest issue of the Southern California Early Music Society newsletter, the high male couldn’t be more a part of local culture. Brian Wilson and Michael Jackson fit the category.

Today, with the revival of Baroque opera--and particularly that of Handel--a good countertenor can find regular work in starring roles at all the world’s major opera houses. Brian Asawa, who was plucked out of the often-overlooked Southern California early music community nine years ago to win the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, is one of the busy ones on the international circuit.

But Asawa is also in the forefront of another countertenor movement, that of making the voice category seem as ordinary in classical music as it is in pop, and that he has done with mixed success. Last year he entered the crossover sweepstakes with a treacly CD of vocalises. This year was better, with a beautiful disc of songs by Ned Rorem that he recorded with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

It was interesting, however, to hear Asawa back in his old musical territory, joined by his old local colleagues, in his solo appearance Sunday afternoon at the Zipper Concert Hall with Maldonado and his orchestra. It was the last concert of the L.A. Baroque’s season. The program was traditional Baroque, with Asawa singing four arias from Handel operas, as well as the Agnus Dei from Bach’s Mass in B Minor.

The most appealing aspect of Asawa is his elegance. There is an inherent showiness to the typical countertenor. A great deal of flamboyant music has been written for the voice, and male lungs supply so much raw power to the soprano range that operatic emotions can easily become exaggerated. But Asawa, who is of slight build and with a small but tightly focused voice, is refreshingly understated in his graceful negotiations of hairpin coloratura turns and his exquisite high notes.

Yet Sunday’s frustrating concert, despite (or maybe because of) its moments of lovely singing, seemed an example of Asawa’s curious career. He did not stand in front of the orchestra but in its midst, as if he were part of the ensemble. Yet he exhibited many stock theatrical mannerisms that he has picked up in too many hackneyed opera productions.

The arias from “Admeto,” “Rinaldo” and “Serse” were chosen to demonstrate Asawa’s lyric and dramatic gifts, but somehow he managed to miscalculate in nearly every instance--burning anger might be understated in supple ornaments, whereas simple sentiment could be over-gesticulated--thereby leveling musical extremes. With the short Bach excerpt, however, everything fell confidently into place.

Perhaps a more adamant conductor would have made a difference. The easygoing Maldonado, who leads his orchestra through his violin playing and a loose conducting style, appeared perfectly happy in a supporting role.

But even in the program’s two orchestral works--Telemann’s Overture in C (which was performed in segments interspersed by Handel arias) and Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1--there was more a sense of enthusiastic ensemble playing than of singular interpretation. That enthusiasm wasn’t always tidy, and we were reminded just how temperamental period horns and oboes can be. Still, the performances were lively, and Zipper’s lucid acoustic gave the period instruments a welcome sonic immediacy.