Zanaida Robles, conducting at the Midnight Mission. She welcomes friendly interruptions from the audience.
John Malveaux of
writes:
Zanaida Robles conducts at Midnight Mission
The New Yorker
Handel’s “Messiah,” on Skid Row
A visionary Los Angeles violinist makes music with the homeless.
By Alex Ross
Three years ago, Brian Palmer, a
forty-three-year-old native of Beaumont, California, was a homeless man
struggling to overcome heroin addiction. All he owned was a bag
containing some clothes, a blanket, and a pillow. He sought assistance
at a recovery center at the heart of Skid Row, the dismayingly large
tent city in downtown Los Angeles. One activity that helped him through
the skittish early period of sobriety was singing. As a kid, he dreamed
of becoming a professional singer; he was a member of the church choir
and appeared in musicals at school. In 2015, he encountered the Urban
Voices Project, a choir made up of Skid Row residents and allies. This
led him to Street Symphony, a group of professional musicians, mostly
from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the L.A. Master Chorale, which
works with homeless, mentally ill, and incarcerated populations. In
February, Palmer began taking voice lessons from Scott Graff, a member
of the Master Chorale and of the Street Symphony Chamber Singers. Graff
told me, “I gave Brian some tips on vocal technique, and he taught me
life lessons. I got the better end of the deal.”
A
few days after Thanksgiving, Palmer sang in a musical workshop at the
Midnight Mission, a charitable institution on Skid Row. He had been
studying “The People That Walked in Darkness,” a bass aria from Handel’s
“Messiah.” In ten days’ time, he would sing it with Street Symphony,
which presents an abridged “Messiah” at Midnight each year. At the
workshop, five string players accompanied him; a few dozen members of
the Skid Row community were in attendance. Before performing, Palmer
shared with the audience some thoughts about the music. A tall man with
shaggy hair and a drawling voice, he was dressed in jeans and a “Rule
Your Own Destiny” T-shirt. He told his story with the practiced
directness of someone who has attended many twelve-step meetings. “When I
came here, three years ago, I didn’t know where my life was going to
take me,” he said. “I just knew that I needed to change, and that I
needed help. When I was walking through my life in addiction, and the
darkness and the hell I had created for myself, it was like the phoenix
coming out of the darkness and seeing the light.”
Palmer
then sang the aria. The text, from the book of Isaiah, is as follows:
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light
shined.” Handel’s “Messiah” is such a fixture of the repertory that it
takes some effort to focus on the words and register what they mean. In
that respect, Palmer surpassed any singer I have heard. He performed
well for one who has been studying vocal technique for less than a year,
and in the lower end of his range he had a round, full tone that can’t
be taught. More important, he made the text sound as though it had been
taken from his own life.
***
The first performance of “Messiah,” in Dublin, in 1742, was, according to
a contemporary announcement, presented “for the Relief of the Prisoners
in the several Gaols.” Proceeds from the première helped the Charitable
Musical Society to free a hundred and forty-two people from debtors’
prison. Street Symphony’s “Messiah” therefore comes closer to the
original spirit of the piece than most modern versions do. The first
“Messiah” attracted a “most Grand, Polite and crowded Audience”; the
performances at the Midnight Mission draw Skid Row residents, charitable
workers, benefactors, and musicians’ friends. People may start dancing
during the “Hallelujah” Chorus or shouting out encouragement during the
arias. Zanaida Robles, who has been conducting the Street Symphony
“Messiah” since 2015, welcomes such friendly interruptions, often
turning around to acknowledge them.
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