|
| |
|
|
Jordi Savall and the Misteri d’Elx
BY JEFFREY GANTZ
|
|
|
|
|
On August 14 and 15 each year in the basilica of Santa María de Elche, in southeastern Spain, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is celebrated in a two-part mystery play that’s the only one sanctioned to take place in a Catholic church, a special privilege accorded in the 17th century by Pope Urban VIII. Based on oral stories of the Dormition of the Virgin that had been written down in apocryphal gospels, the Misteri d’Elx, as it’s known, probably took shape in the latter half of the 14th century; it’s been staged each year almost without interruption ever since, surviving the Council of Trent to be named a national monument by the Spanish Republic in 1931 and a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. In 1995, the French a cappella group Ensemble Gilles Binchois recorded an abridged two-CD version of the play in a French church, with organ interludes; it’s still available on Virgin Veritas. Now the complete first day — "La Vespra" — has been performed and recorded in Santa María by Jordi Savall and La Capella Reial de Catalunya and released on a single CD by Alia Vox, the Barcelona label Savall founded in 1998. Savall, who plays the viola da gamba and other instruments and also leads Hespèrion XX/XXI, has released almost three dozen recordings on Alia Vox that range from mediæval Spain to Elizabethan England and on to Bach and Vivaldi; his best-known work is probably on the soundtrack to Tous les matins du monde. Homenatge al Misteri d’Elx is the usual lavish Alia Vox presentation, with a 100-page booklet providing background and the text of the play in Catalan, French, English, Spanish, German, and Italian. The only omission is an explanation of the Misteri d’Elx’s original language, which with the exception of a psalm and a few verses in Latin is Valencian, a close cousin of Catalan and part of the Western Mediterranean family that extended north into the Occitan languages of France (notably Provençal); only later did Elche, and Valencia, become predominantly Spanish-speaking. Otherwise, the only thing to wish for would have been a DVD of a staged production. The recording begins with a brass-and-church-bells intrada from the 15th century in which Mary processes from the hermitage of San Sebastián into the basilica and addresses Gethsemane, the Holy Cross, and the Holy Sepulcher, singing of her great love for her Son and longing for death so she can join Him. To peals of thunder and more bells, a cloud descends from Heaven and an Angel salutes Mary ("Déu vos salve Verge imperial"), gives her a palm leaf, and announces that her Son awaits her. Mary asks that the Apostles be gathered to comfort her at her death, and the Angel grants that wish before ascending back into Heaven. Led by John and Peter, the Apostles enter (except for Thomas, who’s preaching in India) praising Mary and lamenting her imminent departure. She lies down and dies, the Apostles glorify her, and a choir of Angels descends and then rises with her soul. In the second part of the play, "La Festa," Mary is buried, Jews try to interrupt the proceedings, Thomas returns from India, and Mary ascends into Heaven and is crowned by the Eternal Father. The instrumentation of La Capella Reial de Catalunya includes psaltery, timpanum, lute, theorbo, guitar, harp, bamboo flute, natural trumpet, cornet, shawm, sackbut, bassoon, viol da gamba, organ, and percussion. The Misteri d’Elx manuscripts call for artillery to simulate thunder, but Savall decided to edit in the sound of actual thunderclaps. And though the play has always been staged with male voices (since women weren’t allowed to sing the liturgy in church), he opts for women to convey "the profound significance of the message of maternal and heavenly love implicit in the mystery of the divine transformation of the "Wife and Mother of God.’ " Savall’s own wife, Montserrat Figueras, sings Mary, and their daughter, Arianna Savall, is the Angel. The recording here is fairly close, unlike the Gilles Binchois discs, where the deep acoustic and the a cappella singing present the play in a more mediæval guise. Figueras’s voice is white, resonant, high and yet deep, not like a violin but like the gamba her husband plays, maternal but not matronly. Savall is a little softer and more like the instrument she plays here (and on many Alia Vox recordings), the harp. Tenor Lluís Vilamajó is a sad, sweet John, countertenor Pascal Bertin a more upbeat Peter. The bittersweet nature of the "Ay, trista vida corporal" verse that Mary and John sing is underlined by the plangent instrumental interludes from Cristóbal de Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria. The booklet includes tantalizing diagrams of some of the apparatus on which the Angels descend and ascend. That wasn’t part of this recording, but maybe La Capella Reial did the second half of the Misteri d’Elx for subsequent release?
|
