Soloists Thomas Melander and Denise Konicek portrayed Peter and the Servant Girl in 'Prince of Peace - A Passion Play,' a three-act musical drama. Easter Passion premieres in Malden (Excerpts) Malden Observer Thursday, April 10, 2003 by Jackie Wattenberg    A new composition of music is always exciting; when it takes place right here in Malden and is the creation of a Malden resident -- Gabriella Snyder -- it's all the more notable. And what made this performance enthralling was the superb singers -- all five of them, one woman and four men. Not one of them issued a faulty tone, not one even hinted of a slight tremolo, each with rich quality and thoughtful awareness of their words' meaning.    Snyder brought them all into her opening performance of "Prince of Peace" on Saturday, March 29, in dignified St. Paul's Church: Denise Konicek, soprano; baritone Lawrence Gall as Jesus, baritone Thomas Melander as Peter; tenor Brian Gilbertie as Judas, Herod and John; and Michael Harris, bass, as James. Their performance prefaced the official premiere at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston...    Unlike the famed requiems and passions of Bach and Brahms, etc., this Easter drama expresses the words of Catherine de Vinck, an American poet and winner of the Keats Poetry Prize. Her "A Passion Play" is lively with contemporary language, strong and dramatic descriptions and frequent allusions to the cruelty of war, which program notes emphasize as relevant to the present war in Iraq.    The music might recall Menotti or even a bit of Prokovief in its daring leaps and bounds, with a free and shifting tonality and often perky, unexpected melodies in the organ in the commading hands of R. Harrison Kelton. The whole performance, including some members of the Saengerfest Men's Chorus and those from  The Concord Madrigals, maintained a taut vitality and unfaltering energy as conducted by Michael Driscoll. A short bit of narration by James Sopchak was serious and effective.    Although the passion story is so well known, the intensity of the musical lines and the dramatic approach of each performer made the presentation compelling. The main force of responsibiltiy, of course, was the role of Jesus sung by Lawrence Gall. His every line of the story was moving in his vibrant, flexible voice, an instrument of ever beautiful quality and emotional expressiveness; his high pianissimos were touching, and his final high notes beseeching help from God before his death were simply gorgeous. His bearing was both one of dignity and tragic awareness.    Denise Konicek had sung just a week before in Melrose's Polymnia Chorus, in the high tessitura of Haydn's Mass in Time of War sounding like a light lyric coloratura. Amazingly, here she displayed a richly-colored full-bodied lyric soprano as Mary-Magdalen and a Servant-Girl, with dark low tones and opulent highs, and was attentive to the action of the text. Also apparent -- great breath control.    The heroic-but-betraying Peter was portrayed colorfully by baritone Thomas Melander, whose voice has a distinctively warm, dark resonance and at times climaxes to operatic power. His lines "Figures in the sand, omens in the stars and chicken guts are not my skills...I feed on beer and fish, leaving visions to the blind," are typical of the gutsy yet often lyrically poetic verses of the writer.    Brian Gilbertie did masterfully in taking on three roles -- Judas, John and Herod. His concepts of the parts were fervent and passionate, the firmness of his fine tones constant in elegant legatos or in bursts of emotion. Right up there with the others in excellence was bass Michael Harris as James, a smaller role than the others, which he sang with robust emphasis. Interesting musically were the trio parts that had an interesting delicate counterpoint. Intermittently, the modest-sized chorus sang effectively, with a nice balance of voices.    A few sections where the men's voices crossed each other in dispute were good contrasts to the longer solo parts. Snyder has put together an ambitious and absorbing work of music and drama.

Prince of Peace -  A Passion Play

Listen to some excerpts of "Prince of Peace" recorded live at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston:

Prelude: Let Us Sing!

Crucifixion and "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Mourner's Kaddish and Alleluia!

Gabriella Snyder's three-act music drama, Prince of Peace - A Passion Play, based upon a play by award-winning poet Catherine de Vinck, retells the story of Christ's trials, crucifixion and resurrection, contrasting Christ's message of peace and reconciliation with the world's history of war and judgment.

Prince of Peace, written for vocal soloists, SATB chorus, narrator and orchestra, received its premier performance, with keyboard accompaniment, at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, Massachusetts in 2003.

Snyder's vocal lines are highly singable and supremely dramatic. Rhythmic and melodic motifs are woven throughout the drama, reiterating themes of Betrayal, the Law, Teacher, Creator, and Resurrection. The earthy opening chorus "Let us sing" evokes the drunken, lurching dance of a bacchanal with its strong rhythmic pulse pitted against constantly shifting meter. "The Law" -- with its pompous quasi-military march -- captures the oppressive quality of narrow-minded judgment. The "Mourner's Kaddish" combines solo Hebrew chant based on a traditional Jewish model with the chorus's sonorous accompanying phrases in English. The final "Alleluia" chorus is an exuberant celebration of life and resurrection.

Prince of Peace amplifies in form and substance the miracle and passion plays of Medieval Europe, some of the earliest theatrical works of western music. Snyder first got the idea of composing a musical passion play in 1999. Looking for texts on the internet, she found Catherine de Vinck's theatrical and entirely poetical work -- "A Passion Play" -- synthesizing on all four gospel accounts of the passion. De Vinck's poetry, filled with earthy, real-life characters who have weaknesses, strengths, sufferings and spiritual strivings, attracted Snyder. After calling the award-winning poet at her home in New Jersey, the two began an ongoing, fruitful correspondence.  Snyder finished the work in the Spring of 2002.

In Prince of Peace we see Jesus Christ with a human face, with the victims of war, around the world, and throughout millennia. The passion play recounts the story of Christ's trials and triumph, his persecution and resurrection, and underscores his universal message of peace, forgiveness and love. Despite the challenging themes of war and the inhumanity in the world, the ultimate message of Prince of Peace is one of hope:

    The night is over,
    the winter is past.
    A deathless world emerges
    from the sea of transformation
    rising to the morning light.

One cannot miss the underlying antiwar theme of de Vinck's original passion play, written and published at the close of the Vietnam War. Her work is direct and unflinching as it characterizes war's inhumanity and brutality. Consider these passages from Act I, as de Vinck envisions Christ's prayers in the garden of Gethsemane before he is arrested:

    My God, they are all dying: in open fields,
    in ditches, in times of dislocation, of war
    the scattered corpses are feasts
    for crows and jackals.
    Did I fail?

    I am naked in a world of masks
    stripped in a world of wrappings
    unarmed in a world of flashing swords.

    My bones are counted one by one,
    sold for ivory, carved into necklaces
    for witch doctors and generals.
    I die with death without end.

    CHORUS:
    How long shall we wait? How long?
    Even in sleep we see the coming day,
    the bitter fruits ripening on the tree.
    Yet, we pull our coats over our heads,
    move deeper into our animal sleep.

All the lyrics of Prince of Peace are taken directly from de Vinck's play, published in 1975, but a few passages have been updated to call to mind more recent examples of mass terror. For example, consider the narrator's reading at the opening of Act III that precedes the Golgotha scene and a dramatic baritone solo, "My God, My God, Why have You abandoned Me?"

    Women of Jerusalem
    Do not weep over me:
    but if tears must fall, let them flow
    over yourselves, over your children.

    My sisters, in my dying I sing Kaddish with you.
    I am not a God of nowhere, but Myriam's son;
    My roots stand firm in your soil, Israel.
    But my death grows elsewhere,
    hangs in a thousand evil trees.

    Whatever the season of the year
    time is short, cut like grass
    before it reaches grain.
    The fruit ripens to be crushed
    The man who eats and drinks today
    choosing his morsels, rinsing his cup
    chokes tomorrow on the dry bone of death.
  
    Peace on Earth? They are coming
    across valleys and streams
    crossing bridges, burning villages
    marching in pride and blood;
    not armies of living men, but ghosts
    in iron chariots wielding iron spears
    hiding behind the power of cannon and gun.
    They are coming through the mountain passes
    with elephants and tanks.

The cast at the premier of Prince of Peace
Photo: (back row) R. Harrison Kelton (organist), Michael Driscoll (conductor), Thomas Melander (baritone), Lawrence Gall (baritone), Michael Harris (bass), (front row) Gabriella Snyder (composer) and Denise Konicek (soprano).