Tonight was the last of my Southwest Chamber Music concerts at the Huntington Museum in San Marino, Dear Readers.
The first half of the program was comprised of Mendelssohn's Octet in E Flat. I remain astounded that this piece was written by a boy of 16. It's a lovely piece (it's one of my favorite chamber works) and was played with great vigor and elan.
The novelty of the program was in what followed the interval, as Savitri, a rarely performed chamber opera by Gustav Holst, was presented in concert. The story, at least on the surface, is rather simple. Savitri argues with Death over her husband, whom Death has come to claim. Take her husband's life, Savitri says, and she will be of no value to the world. Spare his life, she continues, and he will spark life in her, allowing her to spark life in others and do good in the world. Savitri prevails.
The libretto's poetic language (Savitri was sung in English) reinforces the life-affirming "message" of this opera.
Savitri is unusual in that it begins and concludes with extended stretches of singing with no instrumental accompaniment. As he does in his far better known symphonic work, The Planets, Holst makes use of an offstage female chorus; its wordless vocalise suggests the powers greater than humankind that surround us. The small orchestra serves primarily to provide a unifying fabric over which the story is played out. There are moments here and there where the orchestra does offer some dramatic counterpoint, occasionally relying on quasi-Eastern harmonies, but it never takes a dominant role in the proceedings.
I cannot envision an opera as static as Savitri succeeding in a fully staged production. It certainly is an interesting piece, though. It ties nicely to the Christopher Isherwood theme that ran through the Southwest Chamber Music's programming this summer and was a splendid way for the group to conclude its season.
