OSVALDO GOLIJOV’S PASSION SWEEPS BROOKLYN Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, N.Y.; October 30, 2002 Recently, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s annual Next Wave Festival, now a noble 20 years old, has been pilloried for being too stodgy and comfortable. Rather than featuring up-and-coming artists and composers with fresh ideas on their stages, organizers have instead often relied on "house" composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich to keep audiences flocking to downtown Brooklyn. Some may contend that Golijov’s Pasión Según San Marcos ("The Passion According to St. Mark") may fall into the not-exactly-new music category as well: after all, the piece has already had an extraordinary reception internationally. Conductor Helmuth Rilling commissioned Golijov’s Passion (as well as three others by Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm, and Tan Dun) for 2000’s twin commemorations of the Christian bimillennium as well as Bach’s 250th death anniversary. The world premiere was recorded by Hänssler, and that recording subsequently earned a Grammy nomination, as well as a place on many critics’ "Best of 2001" lists. It has already been performed to breathless praise across the United States, from Boston to Chicago to California. So when Robert Spano brought the work to BAM after having given the American premiere in Boston, New York audiences had some idea of what awaited them. But, in truth, BAM has kept to its mission in this case. This is definitely not your father’s Passion. Golijov’s composition stands as one of the most sensational works of recent years: musically exciting, emotionally engaging, and (at least potentially) intellectually explosive. Golijov, an Argentine Jew of Russian heritage who now lives in Massachusetts, puts his Passion into a Latin American context. The music shifts kaleidoscopically: Bahian Brazilian drums and the Afro-Brazilian berimbau, West African call-and-response singing, Cuban song, Argentine tango, and Spanish flamenco weave in and out of the score, as do American minimalist strings. Golijov also recalls medieval passions, when performers physically enacted portions of the drama. Here, though, it’s Brazilian copoeira (a combination of martial arts and dance) and Afro-Cuban dance that stand in for European forms. But the composer blends these elements so deftly and with such a sure hand that the resulting work is neither a pastiche nor a circus. The recontextualization also extends to other elements of the piece as well. Golijov is not a Christian; what he finds in Mark’s account is a universal story. A "dark" Jesus is alternately sung by male and female soloists as well as by the chorus. (Each singer takes on multiple roles, supplying a fascinating psychological subtext to Mark’s story.) The chorus observes Jesus’ death by singing the most Jewish of prayers, the Kaddish. In his notes, Golijov links Jesus’ betrayal, trial, and crucifixion to the turbulence of Latin American history, to Che Guevara and to "disappeared" Argentines and Chileans. Happily, though, there’s nothing about the St. Mark Passion that smacks of political jingoism. His story is much grittier, and much more discomforting. For some of the most disturbing elements of the passion text —Judas’ betrayal, Jesus’ arrest, the march to Golgotha — we hear the most carnival-like, grotesquely upbeat dance music. Granted, there’s a keenly violent edge to his writing, but Golijov’s structure is an arresting (and telling) alternative to the sorrowful melodrama that lesser composers have often resorted to for these sequences. With the exception of the wondrous Dawn Upshaw (replacing soprano Samia Ibrahim), most of the original performers reprise their roles in the BAM performances. The smoky-voiced Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza, who has collaborated closely with Golijov in the past but is also known for her bossa nova and jazz work, sounded thinner than on the Hänssler recording, though it was hard to tell whether or not that was due to BAM’s sound engineering or some other factor. (All performers use microphones in this work.) Dawn Upshaw showed off the silvery, elegant sound for which she is so well known. Though her part was otherwise fairly small, the gorgeous, ethereal aria "Colorless Moon" is sure to become a signature recital piece for her. The Schola Cantorum de Caracas, from whose ranks numerous singers were pulled out for solo turns, were exceptional; the way they sneer and spit out the ugly narrative of Jesus’ appearance before Pontius Pilate is a marvel of ensemble acting. Cuban vocalist and dancer Reynaldo Gonzáles Fernández and dancer/berimbau and percussion player Deraldo Ferreira are masters of their respective art forms. Wisely, the enthusiastic Spano knows when to step back and allow individual performers to grab hold of the reins; when you have as much going on in a score as Golijov does, it’s the only way to make the music blossom. The performance at BAM will be repeated on Nov. 1 and 2. Beg, borrow or steal as need be to make your way to Brooklyn and score a ticket. Anastasia Tsioulcas