Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY)
Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings Music by Eric Whitacre Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY June 15, 2010
Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings
At the New York premiere of the musical “Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings” by Eric Whitacre and David Norona, and presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), a chorus of 425 people conducted by Whitacre gathered on stage to replace the typical staging and action. Aged 14 to 73-years-old, the chorus produced glorious, powerful sounds, and they were well-blended, singing with excellent intonation and diction. They stood proudly the entire 80 minutes without intermission—which was astounding since they didn’t sing all that much—and the full-house audience also stood proudly after the performance, cheering loudly. To accompany the singers, there were synthesizers, the two talented Taiko drummers from the On Ensemble, and the fabulous cellist Fang Fang Xu.
The music of “Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings” is comprised of some familiar melodies—two moments were seemingly inspired by Valjean’s “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables” and the eerie part of “Johanna” from “Sweeney Todd”—ritualistic, electrifying percussion (although the wind chimes were overused), and some fascinating use of harmony. The choral and vocal ensemble-writing was fairly straight-forward, except that there was very skilled use of counterpoint in an Act II trio and in an Act I Quintet, which brought to mind the intricacies of Bizet’s Quintet in Act II of “Carmen”. The acting, obviously limited to the space in front of the microphones, was nevertheless very convincing. And the solo singing, particularly that of soprano Hila Plitmann, was stellar.
This Edward Esch story, which contains scenes of martial arts combat, is timely; the remake of the Karate Kid is doing well at the box office, and the second Kung Fu Panda film is due next summer—sure to be another hit. Seeing this tease of a production did make me dream about what a fully staged production would be like. The characters and their conversational interplay were interesting, and seeing them move on stage with that playful dialogue—as well as watching the combat scenes—would be a lot of fun. The narration here was crucial, but sometimes it was too obvious, such as: “(they) embrace”, followed by a hug. Seeing a concert version of “Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings” was about as frustrating as seeing a concert version of “West Side Story”, but it was a prelude to a potentially fantastic evening at the theater.
