John Alexander

No fewer than 21 separate works (not counting the encores) occupied the Pacific Chorale's annual Christmas concert Monday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Yet the program, conducted by John Alexander, turned out to be remarkably varied, smooth-flowing and satisfying. It was largely a program of 20th-Century works and included for many listeners some interesting discoveries.

People can debate whether the Gospel according to St. John is the most anti-Semitic of the four. But Arvo Part's "Passio," a 1982 Renaissance redux Latin setting of the John text, heard Saturday at St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, relentlessly hammers home the Jews' responsibility for the Crucifixion. Other Passion settings try to spread the guilt around by including arias and choral meditations that link the events to the audience.

Conductor John Alexander and the Pacific Chorale opened their 20th season Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with a program that showed Alexander's firm commitment to taking the high road of artistic development. Alexander offered no self-gratulatory speeches, no easy or familiar repertory, no repetitions from recent seasons.

When we say Verdi's "Manzoni" Requiem is operatic, what we actually mean is that it's the most personal work of its kind. The soloists are not given the names of characters in particular plots, as they are in operas. But they are characters nonetheless, stand-ins for you and me, in a drama that we are part of, whether we want to be or not. The plot is simple. As sentient beings, we are aware that we will die.

Angie Papadakis had the temerity to say and the responsibility and the right to say that the bilingual education program needed to be reformed--that it was not working for the very students it was supposed to be serving. That among many other responsibilities--oversight responsibilities--was her job on the state Board of Education. But because she had the courage to speak, she was unseated (Part I, Jan. 14). What about the other 10 board members? What kind of a message did the political powers who ousted Papadakis give them?

People can debate whether the Gospel according to St. John is the most anti-Semitic of the four. But Arvo Part's "Passio," a 1982 Renaissance redux Latin setting of the John text, heard Saturday at St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, relentlessly hammers home the Jews' responsibility for the Crucifixion. Other Passion settings try to spread the guilt around by including arias and choral meditations that link the events to the audience.

He acknowledges that putting on an a cappella concert can be "a very risky thing to do," but Pacific Chorale music director John Alexander says that even so, he can't resist programming such works. "The literature is so wonderful," he says. "Besides, last year, our a cappella program turned out to be our subscribers' favorite program."

In his new paintings of lush vegetation and long-legged birds, John Alexander makes you think for a moment that he is one of those idiosyncratic little masters from another era, a stylist whose delicate dry-brush technique has remained a connoisseur's delight despite the vagaries of fashion. In truth, the Texas-born artist (who lives in New York) is in his early 40s.

The Requiem of Hector Berlioz is a sprawling, ultra-Romantic work, alternating grandiose movements with surprisingly intimate ones. Many conductors are lured by its huge aspects, but few are able to manage the disparate elements of this gargantuan composition and fuse a cohesive structure. Sunday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, John Alexander proved to be one of the few.

'Twas a drizzly night before Valentine's Day, and the John Alexander Singers offered the audience at the Orange County Performing Arts Center a lean and even austere program, rather than a sticky-sweet box of candy. In what was billed as "The Romantics II" program, the 34-voice chamber choir--drawn from the 160 members of the Pacific Chorale--sang works by Brahms, Carol Barnett, Benjamin Britten, Cecil Effinger, James F. Hopkins and Alexander himself, a world premiere, in fact.

Everyone who saw "Amadeus" remembers Mozart desperately trying to finish the Requiem in D minor before he died. But he lost the race with time, and the work was completed--not by rival composer Antonio Salieri, as depicted in Peter Shaffer's 1979 play--but by Mozart's pupil Franz Xaver Sussmayr. Sussmayr, most scholars agree, botched things up, although his edition has become the standard one. Many people since then have rushed to Mozart's aid.

Sunday night marked the composing debut of John Alexander, as he led his own Pacific Chorale in a premiere of "This Time of Kites"--an a cappella setting of poetry by Ray Bradbury. The science-fiction and fantasy writer was on hand for the performance and gave the preconcert talk at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The poems--a brief Prelude taken from "Telling Where the Sweet Gums Are" and two longer sections from "This Time of Kites"--celebrate life and its variety.

The decision to make his professional composing debut was not an easy one for John Alexander, as self-effacing a choral conductor as they come. He also was hesitant about using his own Pacific Chorale as the vehicle. But choosing the work--"This Time of Kites," to poetry by Ray Bradbury--was easy. "This is very much my Opus One," Alexander revealed with a chuckle. "And at my advanced age!" Alexander is only 51, but, he explained, "I've done no composing since my student days.

It may have taken a while for conductor John Alexander to get around to the pounding strains of "Carmina Burana" at a packed Pasadena Civic Auditorium Tuesday night, but when he did, the work resounded in most of its glory. But first: something completely different.

He acknowledges that putting on an a cappella concert can be "a very risky thing to do," but Pacific Chorale music director John Alexander says that even so, he can't resist programming such works. "The literature is so wonderful," he says. "Besides, last year, our a cappella program turned out to be our subscribers' favorite program."

Sunday night marked the composing debut of John Alexander, as he led his own Pacific Chorale in a premiere of "This Time of Kites"--an a cappella setting of poetry by Ray Bradbury. The science-fiction and fantasy writer was on hand for the performance and gave the preconcert talk at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The poems--a brief Prelude taken from "Telling Where the Sweet Gums Are" and two longer sections from "This Time of Kites"--celebrate life and its variety.

It may have taken a while for conductor John Alexander to get around to the pounding strains of "Carmina Burana" at a packed Pasadena Civic Auditorium Tuesday night, but when he did, the work resounded in most of its glory. But first: something completely different.

In "Burden of Dreams," Les Blank's documentary on German filmmaker Werner Herzog's experiences in the South American jungle, Herzog delivers an inspired rant on the malevolence of nature. "This nauseating growth," he mutters darkly flinging his arm towards the jungle surrounding him, "relentlessly spreading, choking, suffocating--it's a nightmare" he concludes in horror.