   The Washington Times Article published Feb 18, 2008
But context is everything, as they say, and "Alcantara" was revived (in concert form) for the first time in a century on Saturday night at Strathmore, as part of one of the most thoughtful and unusual musical premieres this season. Titled "Free to Sing: The Story of the First African-American Opera Company," the production wove music, photography and narration together to tell the true but long-forgotten story of a heroic group of blacks in Washington in the years around the Civil War. With few resources but their own voices, they formed first a choir, and then the Colored American Opera Company, the first opera group in Washington, and raised $75,000 putting on "Alcantara" to build a church and school.
It's an inspiring piece of local history, and Strathmore brought together some exceptional talent to tell it. Written by Shelley Brown and Michael Rosenberg and narrated by the rich-voiced David Emerson Toney, "Free to Sing" evokes the period more as dramatic sketch than history lecture, illustrated with the kind of spirituals and classical religious music that the original choir would have sung. Opening with a dramatic processional of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," the Morgan State University Choir turned in solid if rather low-key accounts of five other spirituals, two movements from a simple but lovely Mass written by John Esputa (the original choir's music director), a bit of Haydn and a surprisingly moving "Te Deum" from that master of the march, John Philip Sousa. Through it all you could hear the deep hopes and even deeper fears of the time.
The real excitement came in the second half, which was devoted to the Opera Company's music. The group had an all-too-short life - it only put on seven performances of "The Doctor of Alcantara," written by the emigre Julius Eichberg in 1862 - but was nonetheless able to build St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church with the proceeds. And it's easy to understand its success; "Alcantara" is a light souffle of a work, whipped up from the usual batch of thwarted young lovers, meddlesome parents and lots of free-floating hormones, but it was brought off on Saturday with such ease and relaxed humor that it was impossible to resist.
There was fine comic interplay and often superb singing from Awet Andemicael as Isabella, Kenneth Gayle as Carlos, Carmen Balthrop as Lucrezia and Millicent Scarlett as Inez, as well as an engagingly over-the-top vocal turn by narrator Toney. But much of the evening's pleasure came from the Post-Classical Ensemble and its expressively kinetic conductor, Angel Gil-Ordonez, who turned in lively, detailed and almost mischievous playing, making this work seem as fresh as it must have more than a century ago - back in the first heady years of freedom. http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080218/ENTERTAINMENT/407269706/1007
This dual exploration of the past was a result of an ambitious venture by the Music Center at Strathmore, which moved from its usual presenter mode into producer status with Free to Sing: The Story of the First African-American Opera Company.__ Such a hefty title might arouse suspicions of stuffiness, but this sold-out multimedia presentation steered clear of a lecture-y tone.__ On the first part of the program, a brisk narration, interspersed with musical selections, laid out the basic information about how a Catholic church choir in downtown Washington grew into the city's first opera company and the nation's first black opera company.__ The rest of the evening was devoted to a concert version of the piece that this remarkable troupe performed to positive notices in D.C. and Philadelphia in 1873 -- The Doctor of Alcantara by German-born violinist and composer Julius Eichberg.__ A few years before the start of the Civil War, Blessed Martin de Porres Chapel was established for free black Catholics. Later named St. Augustine's, the church developed a reputation for musical, as well as spiritual, assets, thanks to a gifted church choir. In 1868, John Esputa, a former Marine Band member and teacher of John Philip Sousa, was appointed the ensemble's director.__ Esputa heard the potential in his singers to move outside the realm of sacred music, and, in 1869, helped create a showcase for them, the Colored American Opera Company. Soloists included a former slave who did sewing for Mary Todd Lincoln.__ Although the company apparently folded soon after its successful performances of the Eichberg operetta, it raised enough money to start building a new church and school for St. Augustine's.__ To illustrate the quality of Esputa's chorus Saturday, Free to Sing had the luxury of the Morgan State University Choir. The group, led by Eric Conway, demonstrated its customary polish and personality in spirituals, an excerpt from a Haydn Mass, and, most intriguingly, sacred works by Esputa and Sousa (his Te Deum, possibly written for the St. Augustine's choir, revealed a slight hint of "The March King").__The main event, though, was The Doctor of Alcantara, given such a breezy, enthusiastic performance that it was easy to understand why the work was once a favorite of American audiences.__ Eichberg, who founded the Boston Conservatory of Music in 1867 (at his death in 1893, The New York Times called him "one of the greatest violin teachers in this country"), seems to have possessed an exceptional flair for melody. Much of Alcantara could be mistaken for something by Jacques Offenbach or even a young Johann Strauss, with lots of dancing rhythms and witty turns of phrase.__ Although spoken dialogue was dispensed with here, noted actor David Emerson Toney did useful narrator duty with theatrical aplomb and also gamely sang a couple of small parts.__ Awet Andemicael soared sweetly as Isabella. Carmen Balthrop offered exceptionally charming, stylish singing as the mother, Lucrezia. Millicent Scarlett romped through the role of the maid, Inez, with a juicy tone. Kenneth Gayle, as Isabella's intended, Carlos, sculpted his ballads sensitively. Gylchris Sprauve needed more tonal weight for the title role but revealed comic flair.__Despite the limitations of a concert format, director Scot Reese succeeded in generating plenty of engaging action from the cast.__ Although the choral part in the operetta is small, the Morgan singers made each contribution count.The orchestra of the Post-Classical Ensemble played with an admirable sheen. Conductor Angel Gil-Ordonez brought to the score delightful rhythmic flexibility and lyrical nuance.
It was a thoroughly persuasive, classy performance that paid fitting tribute to the forgotten Eichberg and the little-known ensemble of black singers that made its bold mark with his music more than a century ago.
'The Doctor of Alcantara': History Makes a House Call Sometimes, if you want to hear a certain kind of music, you have to put it on yourself. This was true in 1873, when the Colored American Opera Company, Washington's first resident opera company, mounted an operetta called "The Doctor of Alcantara," by Julius Eichberg. And it is still true in 2008: On Saturday night, the Music Center at Strathmore, known as a concert hall and a presenting organization, tried its hand at producing, putting on a show called "Free to Sing" to commemorate that earlier achievement. There is no questioning the historical and social interest of the result. The event was sold out months in advance; the audience included current members of St. Augustine's Church, the first African American Catholic church in Washington, founded in 1858 and from whose choir the members of the Colored American Opera Company were culled. A main point of the exercise, after all, was documenting an important and forgotten chapter of local history. And the show did resemble an old photograph album, not only because of the archival images on a screen above the performers' heads. It was a compendium of musical images: spirituals; music the choir actually sang (including part of a Mass written by the choir director, John Esputa); and Eichberg's operetta. And like an album, it was a wonderful historical document -- though not all of its components were equally interesting. One sympathized with the challenge that faced the show's creators, Shelley Brown (Strathmore's artistic director) and Michael Rosenberg. Simply mounting "The Doctor of Alcantara," a frothy, derivative piece that melted on the ear like a meringue on the tongue, would not have conveyed the full story, nor allowed for the inclusion of relevant pieces by Esputa or one of his students, John Philip Sousa. Instead, they created a first-act introduction comprising musical pieces performed by the fine Morgan State University Choir, pasted together with a bare minimum of spoken narrative from the actor David Emerson Toney. The operetta, too, was of more historical than musical interest, representative of countless once-popular scores languishing in archives all over America. Eichberg clearly thought Rossini was the ne plus ultra of comic opera, harking back to a bygone style the way a composer today might seek to emulate Rodgers and Hammerstein. His slender plot revolves around Carlos and Isabella, who love each other although their parents have arranged other marriages for them; in the end, it turns out that the proposed arrangement is a marriage to each other. Along the way, the eponymous doctor thinks he has accidentally killed Carlos a couple of times; once, he thinks he hears Carlos's ghost, and Eichberg shows he knows his Mozart with a brief excursion into "Don Giovanni's" D minor. But weak though the piece was, it was also utterly charming, so lovingly cast and accompanied with such ardor by Angel Gil-Ordóñez and the Post-Classical Ensemble that it would have taken a curmudgeon to resist its appeal. Awet Andemicael as Isabella and Kenneth Gayle as Carlos had voices whose strengths and limitations were perfectly suited to the period: slender, light, tight little instruments capable of great sweetness, if not great volume, and attached to eminently likable performers.
In 1873, the performances resulted in unanimously strong reviews from papers in Washington and Philadelphia, with particular praise for the fine chorus, and the company was able to raise enough money to build a new church. This performance, even if it remains a happy one-off, was at the least a fitting echo, and tribute, of its predecessor. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021702434.html |
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The fact that "The Doctor of Alcantara" has fallen into obscurity is not, perhaps, one of the great musical mysteries of our time. This frothy little operetta was a smash hit in the 1870s, but to modern ears its melodies are hopelessly banal (there's even an aria called "Oh, Woe is Me!") and its drama thin; fun to listen to, but about as deep and enduring as a Britney Spears marriage.
