Classical Music: Post-Classical Ensemble
by Grace Jean
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Spain's most famous novel at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater on Saturday night, the Post-Classical Ensemble presented "Celebrating Don Quixote," a charming collection of music inspired by literature's quixotic hero. The 28-piece orchestra, led by music director Angel Gil-Ordonez, featured baritone Chris Pedro Trakas in Jacques Ibert's "Songs for Don Quichotte" and Ravel's "Don Quichotte Dulcinee."
Trakas's elegant and sweetly expressive voice conveyed Don Quixote's musings in song and narrated his adventures in excerpts from Miguel de Cervantes's text, read in English translation. During "Chanson Boire," of Ravel's cycle, Trakas displayed sardonic humor while gliding through challenging vocal passages.
Manuel de Falla's 30-minute opera "El Retablo de Maese Pedro" ("Master Peter's Puppet Show") is based on an episode from the book in which Don Quixote and his sidekick, Sancho, take in a puppet show, and calls for an all-puppet cast. In collaboration with Wesleyan University's theater department and New York's Puppetsweat Theater, the ensemble gave the opera a lively performance. As life-size and hand-held puppets acted out each scene, the singing came from a trio of humans. Soprano Awet Andemicael sang the role of Master Peter's apprentice with pointed clarity, not once stumbling over the torrent of words packed into each beat. Trakas reprised his role as Don Quixote, while tenor Peter Burroughs, as Master Peter, interjected drollery into his poignant arias.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
