DARING DOZEN FREE THE REINS Love him or loathe him, no-one can deny that American composer Philip Glass has had a huge influence on contemporary classical music. Thanks to Timothy Sexton's grand passion for the most widely known exponent of minimalism - basically very fast repetition of melodic and rhythmic patterns with gradual internal changes - Adelaide has had several opportunities to make up its own mind. Music's answer to the alienating discords of serialism, or the laziest compositional technique ever devised? Whatever, unquestionable is that for sheer effort and concentration the 12 singers of the Adelaide Vocal Project who kept the jury deliberating on Sunday night rank with Joan Sutherland trilling out a Donizetti extravaganza. Singing the numbers 1-6, or doh-re-mi, both with variations, over and over and over, sounds easy. Try it. Prestissimo and fortissimo. For minutes on end. And keep it up for well over an hour. This dauntless dozen put their lips, jaws, cheek muscles and epiglottises at risk of RSI with hardly a sign of strain. Many had done their apprenticeships in the largely unobtrusive choruses with State Opera's Studio productions by Sexton and Leigh Warren of the Glass operas Akhnaten and Einstein on the Beach Parts 3 & 4, but out front, in full view, they laid rightful claim to recognition of their gifts and labours. Excerpts from the Glass trilogy - Akhnaten, Satyagraha and Einstein - some with various ensembles of Adelaide Art Orchestra, some unaccompanied, were samplers backing Sexton's promise of staging the first half of Einstein next year and the Australian premiere of all three works in 2007. In a politically shrewd move, Sexton preceded his hero with epigones Peteris Vasks (Dona Nobis Pacem) and Morten Lauridsen. Lux Aeterna was fine example of what can emerge when the bonds of technique are loosened and music is allowed to take over. ELIZABETH SILSBURY |
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