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A Glorious Mass and a Bal Cairo
Cairo Opera House
12/21/2024 -
Giacomo Puccini: Messa di Gloria
Aram Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite
Arturo Márquez Navarro: Danzón No. 2
Amr Medhat (tenor), Reda El Wakil (bass)
A Cappella Choir, Maya Gvineria (chorus master), Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Gevorg Sargsyan (conductor)
(© Ossama el Naggar)
For connoisseurs of orchestral music, Cairo is known for some particularly wonderful 1951 recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886‑1954). These historical treasures date from one year before the end of a period known as Egypt’s “Golden European Century,” which in fact lasted 150 years. The country was then decidedly European in orientation as well as aspiration. While it may have been golden for its many European and foreign residents, it was the exact opposite for the overwhelming majority of Egyptians.
The period thus named began when Mehmet Ali (1769‑1849), an ethnic Albanian from Thrace (present day Northern Greece), seized power in 1805, founding a dynasty that would rule until Nasser’s military coup in 1952. Ali and his descendants embarked on an intense modernization campaign, vowing to transform Egypt into a developed European state. He introduced crops suited to the climate, including cotton, which soon became its main export, especially during the U.S. Civil War, when exports from the cotton‑rich American South became scarce. He built roads, bridges and a railway system. His offspring continued these efforts, with the construction of the Suez Canal, enabling maritime traffic shortened distances between Asia and Europe, eliminating the need to sail around the coast of Africa.
Egypt also opened its doors to immigration, with huge numbers of Greek, Italian, Levantine (Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians) and Armenian citizens settling there. These immigrants, together with the local elite, adopted French as lingua franca, and enjoyed a rich cultural life fashioned after France. Foreign opera troupes and theatre companies regularly visited Cairo and Alexandria. In 1871, Verdi’s Aida inaugurated Africa’s first opera house. It was commissioned by Egypt’s ruler and was the only Verdi opera premiered outside of Europe.
Founded in 1959, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra’s first principal conductor was Austria’s Franz Litschauer (1903‑1972). Charles Munch, Yehudi Menuhin, Patrick Fournillier, Ole Schmidt, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Daniel Barenboim were among its guest conductors.
Puccini’s Messa di Gloria (1880) was composed as the composer’s graduation exercise. Despite his young age, the work already contained the imprimatur of one of the greatest opera composers. In contrast to Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Puccini’s mass is no operatic mass in disguise. Armenian conductor Gevorg Sargysian adopted bold tempi throughout the work, especially in the “Credo”. He refrained from an operatic reading, a trap befalling many. Sargysian’s stoic approach resulted in a more pious reading, especially for the long “Gloria” and the final “Agnus Dei”.
Tenor Amr Medhat’s initial intervention “Gratias agimus tibi” sounded too forceful, not adhering to the often subtle spirit of a mass. For his second solo, “Et incarnatus”, Medhat was on the right track; his high‑powered, resonant voice produced the right effect, and was awe‑inspiring. Veteran bass Reda El Wakil was authoritative in the final movement, “Agnus Dei”. His rich, commanding voice evoked Ramfis in Aida, which was à propos, as it was likely Puccini’s source of inspiration. As composers often did, Puccini recycled this “Agnus Dei”, incorporating it into the Madrigal in the second act of Manon Lescaut. Finally, this mass would not have been as successful without the excellent contribution of the choir heard tonight. It’s clear that Georgian chorus director Maya Gvineria did an excellent job preparing the A Cappella Choir.
In contrast with the program’s first half, the second was more festive, and decidedly consecrated to dance. Russian-Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian is best‑known for the sabre dance from his ballet Gayane (1942), and for his ballet Spartacus (1954). Masquerade was initially written in 1941 as incidental music for an eponymously-named play. He then amended it to a suite in 1944, which is now best‑known for its opening movement, the “Waltz”. Conductor Sargsyan succeeded in conveying the menacing mood of this first movement, for this is no joyous Viennese waltz. It’s an eerie dance full of menace and foreboding, despite its sometimes cheerful melody. The tempo of the second movement, “Nocturne”, was blissfully not too slow, contrasting beautifully with the frivolous third movement “Mazurka”, which was appropriately joyous and ballabile. The fourth movement, “Romance”, almost certainly Henry Mancini’s inspiration for the theme song from the Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn film Charade (1963), was played with reserved stoicism, avoiding the syrupy sentimentality befalling many. In the fifth movement, Galop, Sargsyan lets loose to the wild syncopation of this final contrasting movement. The fierce and boisterous sonority of the orchestra had the right effect on many in the audience: smiles all around.
The final work was one I’d not heard, and it was a revelation. Mexican composer Arturo Márquez Navarro (born 1950) was virtually unknown outside of Mexico until 2007, when Gustavo Dudamel included it in the setlist for the Simon Bolívar Youth Orchestra’s tour of the USA and Europe. Since then, Danzón No. 2 has been considered Mexico’s second national anthem. The orchestra conveyed the festive mood of the piece with brio. Sargsyan’s gradual buildup to the frenzied finale of the short piece did the trick. Thanks to this rarely‑heard program, the public enjoyed a stimulating evening, starting with a sacred work and ending with an exhilarating dance, both appropriate for this festive season.
Ossama el Naggar
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