THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170538
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The edge of the universe is backstage at Chrysler Hall.
This weekend, the Virginia Symphony is playing Gustav Holst's ``The Planets.'' The final movement, ``Neptune, the Mystic,'' ends with an unseen chorus of women's voices. Lush, high music twinkles like a distant star.
The audience sees a huge orchestra with an open door behind it. Through that door is a double chorus of women with a lone, high-voiced man.
At Thursday's dress rehearsal, conductor Jerome Shannon stood backstage on a platform equipped with a small television.
On the monitor, music director JoAnn Falletta made small motions to lead the undulating music on stage. But Shannon, the associate conductor of Virginia Opera, made sweeping gestures big enough for Wagner. The chorus sounded like mermaids or angels.
At the very end of the piece, two chords repeated again and again, dwindling to silence. As the group got softer, the three lines of singers peeled off and walked into the lobby, leaving a handful of women to sing the faint final notes. On the floor were pairs of shoes and a Land's End catalog.
``Is it something I said?'' Shannon joked. He told the chorus, ``As you promenade, close the lips and try to do it with a decrescendo. Very tastefully.''
``As long as the monitor works we're in great shape,'' alto Jennifer Arsenault of Virginia Beach said. She showed up in a blouse decorated with suns, a moon, stars and astrological signs. ``My kids looked at me today and I told them I was in outer space.''
Next to her was countertenor John Roberts, the sole man at the back of the group. ``They're quite used to me. The altos accept me. I'm the bearded lady.''
Singers agreed that the music wasn't difficult. ``Oh, it's great fun,'' Roberts said. ``We've got great confidence in Jerry. If he could bring off the chorus in `Simon Bolivar,' he can do this. In spite of the logistics.''
One soprano was lamenting the lack of humidity caused by heating systems. ``I'm coasting across a sea of phlegm, floating my high notes in winter,'' said soprano Agnes Mobley Fuller of Portsmouth.
The group was a bit giddy between run-throughs. Someone sang ``It's My Party'' and ``Happy Birthday.''
Melodies in ``The Planets'' are almost as recognizable, after years of borrowing for radio, movies and TV. One tune in ``Jupiter'' became known as ``I Vow to Thee My Country.''
The most haunting bar of the piece is the last one. Holst completed ``The Planets'' in 1916, when Neptune was still the most remote known planet in the solar system. Since then, Pluto has been discovered, men have walked on the moon, and elaborate special effects have taken movie audiences to other galaxies.
But Holst's effect, just a few gently rocking notes trailing off, says as much as any space epic. And women - plus a man - make this particular journey on foot. by CNB