The Big Oh!

Who knew choral music could be sexy? I sure didn’t, and I’m not entirely sure that the Resonance Ensemble, who explores sexuality in classical choral music with their current program The Big Oh!, are convinced that it can be.

They began the evening with an arrangement juxtaposing choral music with 20^th century pop songs, and their third number was Yngve Gamlin’s The Paper Bag Cantata was a heavy handed demonstration of finger-banging and premature ejaculation. By not embracing classical music’s strength in subtlety, the Ensemble belied a sense of inadequacy in their ability to communicate sexuality. While this tendency towards the literal and demonstrative pervaded the program, moments of passion and sensuality did manage to rise to the surface.

A good part of the first half of the evening was devoted to nineteenth century climactic musical structure and how it mimics the male sexual experience. At first it was exciting, but when I realized that’s all there was to it – the music swelled in intensity only to fall off into release, I didn’t need to hear any more. Not that the music itself wasn’t beautiful, but calling my attention to one specific element limited my experience.

After intermission, the program was better for me. Natalie Gunn and Maria Karlin’s duet from Léo Delibes Lakmé felt like sitting in a jasmine scented garden enjoying a lover’s body – never mind that’s what the words said, that’s what the music felt like. Artistic Director Katherine FitzGibbon could stand to learn from this. Sexy doesn’t come from saying “this is sexy” or “these two notes grind together” or from singers making cutesy faces of what they thing sexy looks like. No, sexy is a feeling, and it’s a feeling that works on everyone differently. And that, again may be a weakness of the program. Since a major strength of classical music is its subtlety and its power of suggestion, and everyone finds different things to be sexy, all this program could aspire to be is a selection of music that FitzGibbon finds sexy. Not to say that I couldn’t feel a sense of elation surrounded by the rich harmonies of Edwin London’s Bach Again or appreciate the passionate abandon of Orff’s Carmina Burana, but those were only moments that worked. Unfortunately, the evening as a whole doesn’t.

But if you’re feeling experimental, The Big Oh! is playing again tonight at The Alberta Rose Theatre at 7:00.