In the citified fast-pace Oberlin lifestyle, it is rare that students successfully step back in time and pay homage and respect to old musical traditions. Imagine a TIMARA student performing his junior recital on a harpsichord. Or try to visualize midnight gothic organ pumps in Finney Chapel.
This weekend a tremendous triad of musicians have set up an old French scene to lure some audience members back in time to a lilting world of ballads. The sumptuous panels and columns of Peters set a scene that encourages the quiet enjoyment of a piece of musical theater.
The simple stage for the melodrama is arranged beneath the two curled staircases in the main lobby of Peters. The set is an earnest recreation of a baroque scene, and the costumes are rich and velveteen. The Bard College sophomore Maya Levy, was seated directly in the center of the scene, slightly ahead of her two accompanying musicians. With her soap opera drop-dead looks, she seized the eyes and ears of the viewers, but she didn't pull on many hearts or cause any shudders.
She had a thinly angelic voice, always close to breaking and never quite soaring. She had excellent posture throughout the piece. She sang in Old French, and her voice was cloaked in the mystery of another time and place. Etienne Abelin, a Conservatory graduate student from Switzerland, played a mournful vielle (a baroque violin) and Double Degree first-year Sarah Mullen tweaked a harp with gentle fingers that provided a subtle accompaniment for the piece.
The performers had excellent sound and timing as a group, and they looked exceedingly serious about their work.
The performance was sponsored by the Romance Languages department, and Levy's OFPC (Old French Pronunciation Coach) went through facial turmoil as Levy tried to emulate an extinct dialect. Old French contains the root of many English etymologies, and some words or phrases were understandable in the clear voice of the bard.
The performance was slightly dampening, yet at its best this concert showed sparkles of a mystical
experience, similar to a journey with a wood nymph or a trip into a haunted house. It is a captivating visual scene, and the music is enough to sustain the audience in an intimate setting.
This performance is a very pretty one, so new spring lovers should go and touch hands, look into each others eyes, and bask in the music of romance.
Tale as old as time: Maya Levy presents a romantic evening of ballads from old France. (photo by Stephen Menyhart)
Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 21, April 23, 1999
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