FROM AROUND THE WORLD: CONCERTS AND RECITALS CINCINNATI.(Brief Article)

The Cincinnati May Festival, founded in 1873 and the oldest choral music festival in the Western Hemisphere, has continually grown in prestige, concentrating on the great choral works, with some excursions into more esoteric repertoire, along with a generous infusion of opera. Four of this year's five concerts were performed as usual in Music Hall, built in 1875 specifically to house the Festival. The mainstays of the Festival are the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the 130-voice May Festival Chorus, an all-volunteer group, directed by Robert Porco. James Conlon returned for his twenty-third year as music director.

The first big choral work this year was Haydn's Die Schofung (The Creation, May 18). Soprano Pamela Coburn, tenor John Aler and bass Kristinn Sigmundsson were the strong soloists, led by Conlon in a delicately nuanced performance. On May 19, Porco conducted Bach's B-Minor Mass, with a well-matched quartet of soloists: Coburn was joined by Paula Rasmussen, finely voicing the mezzo and second-soprano music, tenor Stanford Olsen and bass-baritone John Cheek. Conlon followed up (May 25) with a powerful performance of Mahler's Third Symphony; Florence Quivar was the rich-voiced soloist.

At the heart of this year's Festival was a moving performance on May 20 of an emotionally draining work: Czechoslovakian composer Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis). Composed and rehearsed in 1943 in the "model" concentration camp, Theresienstadt (Terezin), the opera relates an allegorical conflict between Death and an arrogant Emperor, infused with bitter irony, drama and political commentary. When the Nazis realized the parallels to their own lives, the composer, librettist (Petr Kien), cast and orchestra were sent to Auschwitz for summary execution. Der Kaiser was not performed until 1975 in Amsterdam.

The May Festival performed the opera in an English translation by Sonja Lyndon, semi-staged by Ed Stern and D. Lynn Meyers. The singers were costumed and permitted to carry their vocal scores in the simple staging. Dominating the proceedings was the amplified Loudspeaker, chillingly projected by Cheek from the rear balcony. Albert's ...