NY Times Article, 1/27/2005

A Celebration of Soloists in Music Fit for an Emperor, by ANNE MIDGETTE

At weddings in the German-speaking world today, friends of the couple often perform skits. In the 18th century, they did operas. When the Archduke Joseph of Austria married in 1765, the Imperial court had a composer write an opera for four of the Archduke's sisters to perform. The princesses had so much fun with the result, "Il Parnaso Confuso," that they asked him to write them another opera, "La Corona," for their father's name day a few months later. They must have been pretty solid singers. The composer was Christoph Willibald Gluck, and although it was a few years after the premiere of "Orfeo ed Euridice," his first great "reform opera," he didn't see the need for similar reforms in his music for his imperial patrons. The arias of "La Corona" are full of florid ornament, especially in the da capo sections.

"La Corona" was never performed by its intended cast, since the emperor died before the name day rolled around. On Tuesday at Merkin Concert Hall, it was revived - as it has been more than once in this century - by the Queen's Chamber Band (presented by Harpsichord Unlimited), which recorded "Il Parnaso Confuso" last year and is now following up with the sequel. This is music that was written for a specific purpose, intended to give pleasure and to showcase its soloists rather than achieve artistic greatness. Bouncily conducted by Rudolph Palmer, it still served that purpose; and if it wasn't singing for the ages, the soloists almost certainly did at least as good a job as the Austrian princesses did 240 years before.

The story is the poet Metastasio's version of the myth of Atalanta and Meleager: it begins with a group of women who are frustrated that they aren't allowed to go hunt a dangerous wild boar with the men, and ends with Atalanta and Meleager engaged in an "after you, Alfonse" debate about which of them actually killed it. (The corona is the laurel wreath that goes to the victor.)

Julianne Baird brought a nice sound to the largest role, Atalanta, with some muddiness of ornament but a good shape to the music; Mary Ellen Callahan showed a pretty and well-wielded soprano as her sister Climene. As the princess Asteria, Patrice Djerejian, a contralto, tended to overact, and switched vocal gears with a will and a bit of eye rolling to reach her lower register. Danielle Munsell Howard made her New York debut as the prince Meleager and had plenty to be happy about; there was a touch of shrillness in her highest notes, but she basically sang very well and appealingly, especially in her aria with the oboist, Diane Lesser.

To give the countertenor Marshall Coid a chance on stage as well, the evening opened with his rendition of Haydn's "Arianna a Naxos," accompanied by Elaine Comparone on harpsichord: a sturdy, journeyman performance.