Nagano and Zelermyer’s long-awaited collaboration
Oratorio gives maestro and cantor a chance to finally collaborate
There’s more here than meets the eye. They’re both huge Leonard Cohen and Habs fans. They were both recruited by search committees, headed by former McGill principal and vice-chancellor Bernard Shapiro, to take on their respective positions in the city. They’re both Americans who have not only embraced Montreal like few natives ever have, but who are now considered essential parts of the city’s cultural fabric.
Since arriving in Montreal more than a decade back, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal conductor Kent Nagano, a Californian, and Cantor Gideon Zelermyer, a native of Connecticut, have become fast friends, but had never worked together. Until now. The two will collaborate on Sunday when the OSM, conducted by Nagano, presents Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah in the sanctuary of the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Zelermyer’s home synagogue. Although the lead role of Elijah will be performed by acclaimed Canadian baritone Russell Braun, tenor Zelermyer will be featured prominently as a soloist in a variety of roles.
The beginnings of this project go back 10 years to a conversation Nagano had with Zelermyer at the home of former senator Leo Kolber, a major backer of the OSM and the Shaar Hashomayim music and arts program.
“The OSM goes to the NotreDame Cathedral every year to perform Christmas music, so why doesn’t it go to the Shaar Hashomayim to perform Jewish music?” the maestro asked.
“Good question,” the cantor responded.
And so the two got cracking on finding the appropriate piece to bring to the synagogue, and finally decided on Elijah, an oratorio based on the Old Testament prophet. The choice is fitting on a lot of levels, particularly since Mendelssohn composed it in 1846, which happens to be the year in which the Shaar Hashomayim was founded. Also fitting is the fact that Kolber is the honorary chair of Sunday’s concert. This will mark the OSM’s first trip to the synagogue in over 25 years — and only its third ever, after visits in 1986 and 1991.
Nagano and Zelermyer are kibitzing at the Maison symphonique prior to a rehearsal of Elijah. Nagano has a new look: his long locks have been somewhat shorn, and when told he looks more banker than Beatle, he grimaces.
“I just got my hair cut in Hamburg,” Nagano says. “I wasn’t watching what she was doing with my hair, but she did say it made me look cool — although I’m not certain.”
“That’s not very nice,” the grinning Zelermyer shoots back. “She should have said ‘cooler.’ That implies you weren’t cool before.” Pause. “But now that I think about your new haircut, maybe we should be doing Samson, and not Elijah.” The two crack up. “Despite the seemingly austere positions we hold, we are really regular people at the core, with sometimes wicked senses of humour,” says Zelermyer, who made big news late last year for his towering vocal solos on Leonard Cohen’s final album, You Want It Darker.
“We are also conspirers, certainly with regard to getting this concert together,” the cantor adds.
“Gideon had given me a tour of the Shaar and I was really impressed,” Nagano says. “But I’ve had a long personal history with synagogues, including regular ties with a San Francisco and Toronto synagogue. But it was very important to me in coming to Montreal to have that kind of experience here as well.”
Nagano’s history with synagogues goes back to his early years studying music in San Francisco.
“I was a starving student and couldn’t afford a piano,” Nagano recalls. “The problem was that I couldn’t always find a piano available at school on which to practise. I didn’t have a car. So I decided to call up my church and ask if I could use their piano, but they said no, that they were sorry but they kept it locked up when not using it themselves. Same thing with the other churches I tried.
“Then I called up the Temple Emanu-El there, and they said: ‘Of course — come in any time you want and, please, make music for us.’ And they even gave me a choice of a couple of pianos. Music plays such an integral role in many synagogues.”
Zelermyer points out that “music has really been part of the Shaar DNA” since its inception. “We have had a full-time choir since 1887. And what we have been doing of late is only adding to that history.”
Nagano hasn’t done Elijah since 1979, when Zelermyer was all of four. “Elijah is a challenge and the piece is considered one of the icons of the repertoire,” Nagano says. “It’s not performed that often, because it is considered very difficult. It was considered a big step forward for Mendelssohn, combining aspects of opera together with aspects of oratorio.
“Through that drama, it presents the figure of Elijah as a very dynamic and imposing character. Purely musically speaking, it’s passionately dramatic theatre. ”
The part of Elijah calls for a baritone, and few better than Braun to sing the role he has performed around the world for nearly 25 years.
“The baritones always complain about the tenors getting all the good parts, but that’s not true,” quips tenor Zelermyer, before taking a more non-secular tone. “The musical character is certainly in keeping with Elijah’s character in the (Bible). Not only does Elijah do wondrous things, but also Elijah is supposed to be the harbinger of the Messianic era, who is supposed to usher the Messiah into the world.”
Zelermyer’s roles in the piece are rather diverse. He will portray the prophet Obadiah, “and I have to sing about six bars as Ahab, who is not such a nice guy. So I’m a little bit bipolar in this show.”
“And don’t forget,” Nagano tells Zelermyer, “sometimes you just appear as the Tenor.”
“Yes, contrary to my usual role where I ride in wearing a black robe and a cantor hat. But I am happy to be just the (anonymous) Tenor, too, and l do have two very beautiful pieces of music to sing,” Zelermyer explains.
Nagano and Zelermyer are now talking about future collaborations at the synagogue, including
perhaps Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service.
“It’s a baritone, again,” Zelermyer notes.
“Yes, but it’s a high baritone,” a beaming Nagano counters. “You could do it.”
“We’ll talk. But I do really love all kinds of biblical music,” says Zelermyer, before deadpanning: “Genesis, for example.”