The Fredösphere

We saw the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and its merry troupe of players perform A Midsummer's Night's Dream on Friday night, so I'm obligated to tell you how it was.  I never learned the discipline of a proper reviewer, but I'll give you my scattered thoughts.

I wonder how often Mendelssohn's music is performed as originally intended?  I suspect the experience is rare, in which case it is a rare treat.  It is a bit of an odd treat also, since the terribly familiar wedding march has been ripped from its context and replaced in the original context, thus making it fresh and exciting.  The price of admission was justified simply for the chance to hear that music fresh; something I would have thought was impossible.

The orchestra featured period instruments, and frankly, I was surprised how much trouble they had staying in tune, at least in the beginning.  I won't say more, since I don't have much experience with such ensembles in live performance, although I recall Trevor Pinnock's band didn't have that much difficulty when they brought the six Brandenburgs to town two years ago.

I think the acting was brilliant, in spite of the cheesy gags (in a reference to our local tycoon Tom Monahan, they used a Domino's Pizza as a prop -- it was cheesy, get it???) but honestly, the whole performance must be judged a resounding failure, simply because much of it was inaudible.  Here the inconsistency of Hill Auditorium's acoustics was exposed most severely.  When a player stood center stage, and especially when he or she faced the side wall or spoke to the floor (i.e, when the voice was directed at the reflective surfaces) they were loud.  When placed at the side or in the back, it was nothing but mumble, mumble.  Sigh.  This is simply an irredeemable flaw.

One final fly in the ointment appeared in the form of a 70ish woman seated behind us.  She didn't like the acting, she thought the gorgeous music was merely an annoyance, and she complained about the lack of volume.  Maybe, in spite her years, she had never learned the first lesson of polite behavior, but I felt as though she was someone who observed the various flaws of the performance (real or imagined), noticed there were benighted souls around her who might erroneously be enjoying themselves, and so chose to perform a public service by letting us know how bad it was.  Gee, thanks lady.