Reviews

First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach

Spirituals and the Freedom of Truth
February 7, 2025, First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach
Review by John Campbell & Steve Brockman

Music Director Elise Ramos-Krepcho has initiated a First Friday Musical Program at First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach. This performance of African American spirituals and freedom songs (often called "sorrow songs") was a collaboration with Denise Battle, leader of the Opera for Us organization. The choir of twelve voices opened with Ain't Got Time to Die by Hall Johnson (1889-1970).

The soloists were soprano Cassandra Howard and tenor DeVonte Saunders. The story is that they are too busy praising their Jesus to die. The choir followed with Soon Ah Will Be Done (with the trouble of this world) set by William Dawson (1899-1990). We Shall Walk Through the Valley (Of Peace) by Virginia composer Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) came next. Being prepared for what's coming, Keep Yo' Lamps (Clear and Burning) by living American choral composer Rosephanye Powell (b.1962) had percussion accompaniment by high school students Ethan Doss, Madison Lee and Paris St. John, which added a welcome dimension to the evening.

The next song, Steal Away, was arranged by local composer Nicole Houston and was her recent Norfolk State University graduate piece. Michael Singleton was bass soloist. Two songs by Moses Hogan (1957-2003) offered the excitement of a more recent gospel approach to traditional sorrow songs: Walk Together Children and The Battle of Jericho. Hogan is a favorite of ours and we've never heard these songs sung better!

The next and closing song brought back memories of 1964 when this country boy first heard Odetta sing "Keep your hand on the plow, Hold On." Here the arrangement was by Eugene Simpson Thompson. In addition to the soloists mentioned above, the choir included sopranos Rachel Filmore and Daniela Reyes, mezzo-sopranos Brenae Williams, Nerissa V. Thompson, Victoria Sazon; tenors Danquai T. Draughton and Brian Blair; baritone Brent Hartigan; and bass Russell Teagle. Joe L. Harmon shared the conducting with Ms. Ramos-Krepcho.

After intermission Denise Battle sang William Grant Still (1895-1978) Give Me No Body Without Your Soul from his 1934 opera Blue Steel. Still composed six operas over his 83-year lifetime. The power and glory of Ms. Battle's voice was on full display.

This was followed by several songs from the opera Treemonisha by the master of ragtime, Scott Joplin (1868-1917). The opera tells the sweet, stirring story of a young, educated woman who is chosen to lead her community away from the influence of superstitious folk beliefs and toward a more enlightened future. It was a pioneering attempt at fulfilling his desire for recognition as a serious composer in a world where black people had restricted access to education.

He self-published the piano-vocal score in 1911, but the first production of his opera was over sixty years later on January 28, 1972, sponsored by Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. In the six years before he died, he was unsuccessful in getting it staged. We are very pleased that these young, African American singers are on a quest to share this music locally. The performance was very fine with excellent diction in texts accompanied by Zachary Deak at the piano

More on Treemonisha
by John Campbell & Steve Brockman

The January 28, 1972 first production of Treemonisha had a full orchestration by T.S. Anderson. In 1975 Houston Grand Opera staged a production with orchestration by Gunter Schuller and William Bolcom. We saw a video of it published in 1982. It was a weighty treatment, more Wagner than Ragtime. Local soprano Rita Addico-Cohen sang the title role in the East Coast Premier of Rick Benjamin's production with new orchestration using the "regulation" twelve-piece theater orchestra of Joplin's day. There is a CD available of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Singers led by Rick Benjamin with Anita Johnson as Treemonisha.

A staging of Treemonisha would have allowed Joplin to correct shortcomings and unfinished aspects of the work. But it does allow lots of room for creative artists of today to boldly experiment with new productions. Now that two operas by living African American composers have been staged at the Metropolitan Opera, Joplin's opera feels a little prim and preachy, with flat characters and stilted dialogue, while the plot is sleepy and simplistic. Three stagings in 2023 reviewed by Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times show us three very different approaches to liven up the audience experience: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/arts/music/treemonisha-scott-joplin-productions.html

As I was writing this review, on February 2, 2025 the New York Times published a classical music review that will change our view of history. Treemonisha (1911) will lose its place as the first opera by a black composer. Edmond Dédé (b.1827, New Orleans, died 1901, Paris) was a musician of note (clarinet and violin), and like many "free people of color" in New Orleans thrived playing classical music. In 1878 James Trotter, a formerly enslaved man, published a book about remarkable musicians of the colored race. He wrote that Dédé threw "his whole soul" into his music.

Since racist laws in America restricted free people of color, around 1848 Dédé moved to Mexico City for a while, then back to New Orleans and then around 1855 he moved to France. His 548-page hand written manuscript for the opera Morgiane, completed in 1887, was never staged. Last month, 125 years after his death there was an abbreviated production in New Orleans. There was a full production on February 4 in Washington, D.C. followed by one at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The fanciful libretto reminds one of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio. Now there is a new first opera by a black composer to get to know.