I Fagiolini Cooks Up Corals and Character

Author: Abbie Beane

If it had not performed in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall, one may have been hard pressed to tell I Fagiolini, a distinguished English choral ensemble, apart from a group of experienced actors and actresses. Not only did the ensemble's performance on Thursday night ring with the sensational chords of altos and tenors, but also with animated theatrics comparable to a troupe of expert comedians.

I Fagiolini (pronounced fajoleenee) Italian for "the little beans," has sung at Middlebury in the past, putting on a show in 1999 when they were in residence coaching various Middlebury singing groups. And this year the College's Chamber Singers were lucky enough to harness the group's wise words of musical know-how when they worked together last week. The community also had the good fortune of having the opportunity to watch a fine-tuned concert, where I Fagiolini generously dished up a second helping of their vocal worth.

As distinctive figures on the world vocal scene who have played everywhere from Western Europe to Hong Kong and Egypt, I Fagiolini is far from a group of starving artists obligated to play for the small college category in order to round up a following. Long established, I Fagiolini's reputation is grounded in the classics of Renaissance vocal ensemble and flagged by a spirited approach. As further testimony, the group has even released 12 CDs, the most recent being, "Thomas Tomkins - Music Divine" and "Andrea Gabrieli - The Madrigal in Venice: Politics, Dialogues and Pastorales." This is, however, their first full U.S. tour.

I Fagiolini devoted the first part of their performance to renowned English composer, Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656), singing "See, See the Shepards Queen," "Weep no More" and "When David Heard." Striding onto the stage, dressed mostly in black, Fagiolini looked professional, but not imposing, confident, yet amiable, exuding a warmth and a sound that filled the silence of the hall.

The following trio of songs really picked up the pace, paying homage to Italian composer, and arguably the most important musician in the late 16th and early 17th century, Claudio Monteverdi. The three madrigals from "Il quarto libro de madrigali" brimmed with expressions of embittered love and a sobering recognition of the pain, abandon and risk that passion for another uncontrollable human being entails. The first piece was well executed, the leading soprano lending energy to the four other singers, while the second I Fagiolini described as "erotic" and the third as a song filled with "musical bits of word painting."

Finally, the third set of songs courtesy of Tompkins, I Fagiolini described as "one of the finest collections of the age," although people tend to think of it as an "afterthought." The most charged song of the trio was "Too much I once lamented," which contained a laughable number of "fa la las," that I Fagiolini called an "excuse for dancing." Almost sarcastically, Robert Hollingsworth, spokesman of the group continued, "They are expressions that couldn't take words. They were so powerful." The vocalist standing like a tall, brawny and jolly bookend on the periphery of the ensemble, in spirit was at the center of it, stealing the show with his relentless, animated grin and boisterous mannerisms. First he would act in refusal of the "fa la las," and then abruptly, he would happily embrace them, delighting the audience.

The last half of the performance may have been the most memorable, serving as a platform to exhibit comedic types, which when incorporated into the vocals, made for a more entertaining and well-rounded final product. With the Hall's harpsichord dressed up as a boat, the audience was meant to take a trip up the canal from Venice to Padua to meet this hoard of characters. From the quayside departure among noisy gondoliers, some of the passengers introduced themselves (being a courtesan, a moneylender and a drunken German) to do a little of bad singing. Yet this innocuous bit of fun turned into the amorous details of the education of Rizzolina, a commedia stereotypes, transforming the boat into a spicy cruise vessel right out of the popular dating show "Ship Mates." A prayer-meeting was then broken up by more madrigals and popular love songs while the male vocalists attempted to woo the two ladies of the ensemble.

I Fagiolini warned the audience of two things - first of all, that the humor in the opening explanations of each scene of the story would not be politically correct, and secondly that some of the comedic characters may not be familiar since their language would be filled with "clever jokes in Venetian dialect." I Fagiolini also cautioned any Tuscan Italians in the audience that the ensemble would be singing collectively in a Venetian accent. "There are always one or two in a crowd," the spokesman said. And it was with this sprinkling of charm, dash of humor and dollop of talent that I Fagiolini successfully won the support of the College in the second round. I Fagiolini exited on a standing ovation.