Stabat Mater spectacular finish to Festival

In case you haven't seen the review online yet, here it is:

If you closed your eyes, you might have thought it was an opera evening at the May Festival, graced once again by thrilling voices. But it was Rossini's "Stabat Mater," in all its operatic power and glory, that brought down the house in Music Hall on Saturday night.

For his concluding festival program, James Conlon led the "Stabat Mater," not performed at the festival since 1988, and Gluck's "Orpheus and Euridice," just presented once before by James Levine in 1976. The two works could not have been more different – "Orpheus," an Enlightenment-era opera composed to the famous myth, refined and stripped of all musical excesses, and the "Stabat Mater," an opulent piece that straddles the worlds of the sacred and the opera stage.

A concert version of Acts II and III of "Orfeo" sung in Italian formed the first half. In the myth, the musician Orpheus descends into Hades to bring back his wife who has died, on the condition that he not look at her. She reproaches him, he looks, and – unlike the myth – there’s no tragic ending. Amore (sung with charm by Michele Losier) appears to reunite the lovers.

With Conlon leading a reduced Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the forces performed the opening scene with intensity. The May Festival Chorus and May Festival Youth Chorus provided spectacular color as the Furies, and projected a lush, full-bodied and beautifully shaded sound throughout.

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung took the role of Orfeo with a voice of extraordinary power and timbre. Although her involvement was slow to take fire, her "Che faro" was deeply felt. An impressive young American soprano Ellie Dehn made an ideal Euridice. The beauty of this opera is in its simplicity – but the longer stretches of recitative sagged. Even though it was a concert version, I wished that the singers had communicated more with each other.

After intermission, Rossini's "Stabat Mater" was riveting. The text is the sacred 13th-century poem that describes the Mother of Christ as she stands before the cross. Rossini wrote it during two periods of his career, a decade apart. The first six sections seem straight out of "The Barber of Seville," while the last four are more spiritual and influenced by Bach.

An extraordinary quartet of soloists added excitement to the work's virtuoso arias and ensembles. The opening chorus, "Stabat mater dolorosa," with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky’s thrilling soprano soaring above, set the stage for this dramatic reading. She brought emotion to every word, and her fluid, powerful instrument and stunning musicianship graced each of her appearances.

Her well-matched duet with mezzo-soprano DeYoung, "Quis est homo," was one of the highlights. It was a treat to hear DeYoung in a more extroverted vein, as she added a few coloratura runs of her own. Her cavatina was exquisite.

Tenor Rodrick Dixon possesses a virile, not large, but focused voice. His high notes and florid cadenza elicited a few "bravos" from the crowd. One of the more spiritual moments came in bass Morris Robinson’s beautifully phrased "Pro peccatis" (For the sins of the world), communicating warmth, an effortless quality and a voice of imposing size.

The chorus, too, performed thrillingly, singing with discipline, fine diction and enthralling color and navigating the final double fugue magnificently. The contrasts in power and mood between the explosive "Inflammatus et accensus" and the quiet, a cappella "Quando corpus morietor" (When my body dies) were unforgettable.

Conlon captured the work’s tragic undercurrent in sweeping, dark orchestral textures and galvanizing tempos, yet he also projected its solemnity. It was spellbinding from the first note to the last, and the crowd roared its approval.

The May Festival ended with the entire house singing the "Hallelujah Chorus."