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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > June > 13 > Entry
Review: Conspirare’s ‘Missa Latina’
It was beautiful from its first moments. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy’s voice spilled out fragile notes of inevitable sadness. Murphy was at the forefront of a stage packed with musicians Sunday night at the Long Center: A battalion of strings, wind, brass, percussion was just the first wave, with 150 voices looming behind them.
“Missa Latina,” a full Latin Mass by Puerto Rican-American composer Roberto Sierra, produced a huge and diverse sound. The choir under Craig Hella Johnson, seamlessly combined Conspirare and the Victoria Bach Festival chorus.
When the Latin rhythm first enters, near the end of the Introitus, it shifts the solemnity, as if we’ve just turned from a church alter to glance out a window into the streets of San Juan. The music remains ponderous and weighted, but in a way that’s peculiar to Latin America.
As it turns out, “Missa Latina” follows the traditional churchgoing variety quite closely. It’s a solemn, spiritual work and, as Sierra recently explained, the Latin rhythms - shakers, arcing trumpet riffs - do not lighten the religious content, but create personal “moments of introspection.”
And it’s not as if Murphy is about to leap out and sing a number from “West Side Story.” Several movements end with a devastating bass drum, as if the gates of Hell just closed behind you.
And in a way, they have. The Credo is a whirlpool of doubt that follows unbridled joy: the orchestra breaking into full-out San Juan ballroom style Gloria, with its infectious “Hosannas” making heads sway in the choir.
Then the Credo, almost painfully drawn out, emanating doubt from all its pores as the sopranos gently, slowly sing like angels.
Johnson expertly managed his army of vocalists and musicians, and moved vibrantly on the podium. An early tempo in the shakers was out of sync with the baton, but was soon overcome. And crisp, moving work by brass and oboe filled the hall.
Baritone Daniel Teadt, gamely filling in for Nathanial Webster, was unfortunately outmatched aside the angelic Murphy. Where Murphy’s voice projected with ease, Teadt’s felt tight. It had trouble resonating, especially in the lower register.
“Missa Latina” is a journey, and not an easy one for the listeners. But, Dios mio, it is rewarding.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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