Chris Hathaway on 'Scott Joplin Treemonisha': 'It is a must-have for anyone interested in American music.'

[Scott Joplin Treemonisha; The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Singers; Rick Benjamin, conductor; New World Records 80720 (2011)]

ScottJoplin (c.1867-1917) is featured at AfriClassical.com. On Dec. 2, 2011 we wrote of the release of Scott Joplin Treemonisha, recorded by The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Singers under the direction of Rick Benjamin, conductor, on a New World Records 2-CD set:

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Music Library Reviews: Scott Joplin's Treemonisha

January 2, 2012

by: Chris Hathaway

“SCOTT JOPLIN: Treemonisha, in a reconstruction by Rick Benjamin. Rick Benjamin conducting The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Singers, with Anita Johnson, soprano (Treemonisha); AnnMarie Sandy, mezzo-soprano (Monisha); Frank Ward, Jr., bass-baritone (Ned); Chauncey Packer, tenor (Remus); and others. New World 80720: 2 CDs, with 100+-page booklet including extensive notes, illustrations and complete libretto bound into the album.”

“The vocal soloists are excellent, musical and with better than good diction. Soprano Anita Johnson, who sings the title role, is particularly noteworthy, as is mezzo AnnMarie Sandy, who plays her adoptive mother Monisha. Bass Frederick Jackson (Luddud) is another standout; but, really, all the singers are standouts. The chorus is one of probably slightly more than a dozen singers. Dialect is not adopted wholesale, but rather as a coloring like vibrato, half-voice, falsetto or anything else that lends expressivity to singing. It never sounds affected. The instrumental playing is also first-rate.

“A brief, delightful balletic moment occurs in the second act, with the mostly minor-key Frolic of the Bears, for wordless chorus of about eight men and the "eleven & pno." This was published separately as a piano piece during Joplin's lifetime. The ensuing scene, in which Treemonisha is rescued from the conjurers by Remus (tenor Chauncey Packer) is almost a mini-Freischütz scene (American-style, of course) in which Remus defeats them by donning a disguise: "I know", he says, "the conjurors are superstitious, and afraid of anything that looks strange". The second act concludes with the chorus "Aunt Dinah Has Blowed de Horn", which has a wonderful transparency and a new vitality in Benjamin's orchestration.

“The prelude to the third act is slow and wistful, leading without interruption into a joyous ragtime (as only Joplin could write it) reunion with Treemonisha and her adoptive parents, Monisha and Ned (the excellent baritone Frank Ward, Jr.). It is here that the orchestra really enters into the role of narrator for the first time. In the duet between Ned and Monisha, there seems to be a crystallization of Joplin's own operatic style. It isn't a copy of anything European, although he had exposure to that tradition through his European-born teachers. It is noteworthy, and even praiseworthy, that at least two of these men—a German and an Italian—did not try to make their protégé into something he was not, and recognized his innate gifts and the originality of his own musical language.

“For Rick Benjamin, this recording might be described as the culmination of a lifelong passion. It is a must-have for anyone interested in American music.”