REVIEWS

BERKELEY VOICE / THE JOURNAL 

(Albany, El Cerrito, Kensington)

Friday, December 20, 2002

Revel in Winter Solstice

By Brian Kluepfel
Correspondent

The lights lower, and as the audience hushes, the eerie drone of the bagpipe fills the classic auditorium from the hardwood floor to the ornate, domed proscenium.

The keening of the bagpipe wouldn't seem out of place in Oakland's Scottish Rite Temple, would it? But these pipes aren't the Highland variety, nor are its players kilted denizens of the British Isles. Instead, this opening to the 2002 Christmas Revels is an example of how far afield the annual celebration goes to build bridges between different year-end celebrations from around the world.

Oakland's California Revels are part of a nationwide Christmas Revels organization, founded 31 years ago in Cambridge, Mass. Oakland has hosted its own Revels for the past 17 winters, 15 in the historic Scottish Rite Building. And while "Christmas" is part of the title, the aim is to provide an inclusive celebration of year's end that embraces many cultural traditions.

"The Winter Solstice falls on the shortest day and brings on the longest night of the year," said Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, California Revels artistic director. "Across the centuries, people have chosen this time to acknowledge and celebrate the cycle of light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, that governs all our lives."

The Revels includes dance, song and theatrical performances grouped around the common theme of the Winter Solstice. Each year highlights a particular culture and period. Previous Revels have "taken place" in medieval English courts, Appalachian homesteads in Kentucky, and last year, on board a ship of Irish immigrants preparing to depart for America.

Community volunteers are at the heart of the performances. Although seasoned (paid) stage veterans are called upon each season, all the members of the adult and children's choruses alike are culled from local auditions in September. Rehearsals begin in October, and two months later the 80-strong cast is stage-ready.

Oakland's productions are unique, based largely upon the vast talent pool in the area. While many other regional organizations -- there are 12 nationwide -- are given a boilerplate show to produce, California Revels is given a freer rein, and often sets its own standard -- next year, many groups will be performing the Galician-themed show that's on this week at the Lake Merritt theater.

It's an amazing and diverse cast that takes the audience on an imagined pilgrimage from southern France down the route to Santiago de Compostela, a journey that thousands of Christians (and others seeking some form or redemption) make annually.

Joining Kevin Carr and Manuel Torres, who alternate on the gaita, or Galician bagpipe, are multi-instrumentalists Shira Kammen and Pam Swan, who met at last year's Revels and have since gone on to form their own duo and record a CD. The Flamenco troupe of Alicia Zamora, Roberto Zamora, and Seth Hankins add some Andalucian gypsy color. The Brass West Ensemble provides ringing counterpoint to the stringed and bellowed instruments, while singers Wendell Brooks, Fred Goff, and Susan Rode Morris take turns fronting the show.

Despite the array of onstage talent, audience participation in the Revels is practically mandatory. Programs include the words to several numbers, and the highlight of the evening for many is the first-act closing number, "The Lord of the Dance," which ends with audience members and performers hand-in-hand, in a snaking, weaving procession that wends its way out to the lobby and back.

Another made-for-family number is the dramatic rendering of the legend of Santiago de Compostela, featuring oversized cabezudos (big head puppets,). The cabezudos, which can weigh up to 30 pounds, depict the monarchs who first allowed the holy Saint James to be interred on Spanish soil.

The legend dates to 1275, while the papier-mâché tradition began in the 16th century. The royalty is joined onstage by possessed bulls and a six-person dragon, both of which are tamed by the brave devotees of Saint James. (While this is wholesome family fun, be forewarned -- a few babes-in-arms were frightened by the bagpipes and brass.)

Musically, Kammen and Swan's duet on the txalaparta is engaging, including jibes at in-laws, a holiday tradition if ever there was one. This instrument, resembling a giant xylophone, hails from the Basque region and was originally used for crushing apples. The txalaparta built especially for California Revels is thought to be one of only two existing models in the United States.

The thematic center for the Revels lies in Susan Cooper's recitation of "The Shortest Year," which she composed specifically for the event in 1977.

"So the shortest day came, and the year died, And everywhere, down the centuries of the snow-white world, Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away."

Brian Kluepfel is a freelance journalist who has lived in the burbs, the Bronx, Bolivia and Berkeley. He can be reached at bkluepfel@hotmail.com. 

Oakland Tribune

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

European Pilgrims Raise Voices, Kick up Heels in New Revels' Spectacle

By Chad Jones

Score another one for the pagans. This year's brand-new "Christmas Revels," a celebration less of the usual religious events and more of nature, cultural tradition and the winter solstice, overflows with beauty, color and music. 

"The Christmas Revels," performed in Oakland's massive Scottish Rite Temple through this weekend, is one of the season's most reliable spirit warmers. To start with, the show is different every year, which is something that cannot be said of your "Christmas Carols" and "Nutcrackers." 

The "Revels" also avoids that sheen of commercialism that seems to cloud so many modern holiday events. With its mammoth cast of more than 80 singers, dancers, musicians and children, the "Revels" is homespun pageantry with heart. 

This year's show marks the first time that California Revels, part of a nationwide consortium of "Christmas Revels" producers, has created a show from the ground up. 

Director David Parr, artistic director Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer and music director Frederick Goff have turned to an intriguing chapter of European history for the new "Revels." 

Thousands of years ago - no one is exactly sure when - Celtic tribes of Northern Europe began moving west to the Iberian Peninsula and settled on a promontory dubbed Cabo Fisterra, or, Land's End, which became known as Galicia. 

The route taken by the pilgrims became famous, and by the Middle Ages, thousands of pilgrims from numerous countries and cultural backgrounds were tracing the same route - this time in a devotional quest for the city of Santiago de Compostela, the legendary resting place of St. James.  Among the pilgrims, who wore the symbol of a shell to denote their devotion, were seeking redemption and blessings, others atonement and cures. Some merely traveled the route seeking high adventure. 

The "Revels" opens in 1680 with a band of pilgrims coming from France. They sing songs in their native tongue ("Vox Nostra Resonet," "Les Anges dans nos Campagnes" or "Angels We Have Heard on High") and learn songs of the native people they meet along the way (a lovely children's tune in Spanish called "A La Nanita Nana"). 

Storytelling is always a highlight of any "Revels" show, and this year we get two wonderful chapters that are as educational as they are entertaining. 

The first is "The Legend of Santiago de Compostella," the story of how St. James came to be buried in Galacia. The story, narrated by Paul Fioncchiaro, is told the way it would be in a Galician street parade using "cabezudos," or big-head puppets that look like huge bobble-head dolls, and "gigantes," enormous puppets that tower over the stage. 

St. James and his disciples are the bobble-heads, and the evil King Herod and nasty Queen Lupa are the giants. The story also involves other fancy costumes (designed by Callie Floor) such as oxen that turn into wild mountain wolves and a fire-breathing, snake-like dragon. The interesting thing about the story itself is that after St. James is murdered by Harod and buried in Galicia, his tomb disappeared for 800 years. Not until the reign of Charlemagne, when a star appeared over the burial site, was it rediscovered. "Compostela," in fact, means "the field of the star." 

The other wonderful story takes place in Act 2. This folk tale narrated by Kevin Carr (who also plays a mean "gaita," or, Spanish bagpipe) tells of a sickly Infanta (young princess of Spain), magical pears and a "sack of truth." 

The charming thing about the story is that, except for the role of the king, children play all the parts. 

Musically, this year's "Revels" is awash in the rich sounds of Celtic, French and Spanish instruments. In the extraordinary "Canta par Asturias," Susan Rode Morris sings a stunning duet with Carr on the bagpipes, and both the voice and the instrument blend in beautiful, surprising ways. 

Percussionists Pamela Swan and Shira Kammen perform a stirring duet on "Txalaparta/Eu Chorei" using a traditional wooden instrument that Basque cultures originally used for crushing apples. The women sing in Gallego, the native tongue of the Galician settlers. 

There's some wonderful folk dancing on display as well, including an exciting sword dance by a corps of men. But the dance highlight in this 2-1/2-hour extravaganza is the flamenco as performed by Alicia Zamora and Roberto Zamora and accompanied on guitar by Seth Hankins. 

Thrilling, spirited and just a whole lot of fun, this year's "Christmas Revels" is once again a holiday highlight.

You can e-mail Chad Jones at cjones@angnewspapers.com or call (925) 416-4853. 

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Monday, December 16, 2002

Holiday show revels in the diversity of cultures

By Pat Craig

For those expecting warm, fuzzy images of wise men following the star or innkeepers casting a steely eye and pointing toward the manger, this year's annual Christmas Revels will come as something of a surprise. There is much more revel than Christmas in the show, which has become a holiday tradition for many East Bay residents.  That, however, is how the event is supposed to be, since the idea behind this winter solstice celebration is to highlight and explore the customs of other cultures and other times. This year's presentation features a look at the Galician region of Spain from the 11th century to several centuries later, focusing primarily on the religious pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.

Along the way, the group also looks into a surprising side of that area in Spain: its Celtic roots. That culture contributed to the sound of some of the area's music and its instruments, which are similar to bagpipes (the gaita) and the shallow drums so familiar to those who follow Irish music.  While occasionally tunes in the revels are traditional Christmas numbers, the entire presentation is something like a pageant at a fiercely non-sectarian school where everyone knows it's a Christmas pageant, but nobody wants to mention Christmas directly.

This may be something of a surprise for the first-time visitor, who might be expecting a touch of holly hovering over the singing and dancing. But here, it could just as easily be July as the various tales unfold and the piece deals with various aspects of the culture, ranging from stories of St. James, to the fiery flamenco (delightfully performed by Alicia Zamora, Roberto Zamora and Seth Hankins).

The eclectic approach to presenting this year's show -- the first that has been newly scripted by the California Revels group -- gives the revels a delightfully theatrical look. The stories of St. James, for example, are told with larger-than-life figures of the king and queen, who stand more than a dozen feet tall, and St. James and his disciples, life-sized figures with outsized heads that make them look like enormous bobblehead dolls.

Theatricality carries over into most aspects of the show, including a dance number -- Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, which features a chorus of men, dancing while holding antlers, and occasionally tapping them together. The cultural melting pot of the Revels bubbles with songs and dances from any number of other countries. Parts of the program include Mexican influences, English traditions and Irish customs, all of which move in and out of the lavish program.

What makes the program so memorable, though, is its sheer scope. This year's revels includes a cast of more than 80 singers, dancers and musicians, all of whom are clad in authentic ethnic costumes (designed by Callie Floor), which give the presentation a look that is both exotic and colorful.

Couple that with the massive, representational set by Peter Crompton and set it down in the Scottish Rite Theater, and you have a visually memorable event. The auditorium, which was built in the '20s, is an amazing sight for anyone who enjoys the look of old theaters. The place, designed for use by the Scottish Rite bodies, is a fascinating and ornate theater, filled with wood, elaborate carvings and the luxurious trappings of a long-ago era, when detail was all.

It may not really have a whole lot to do directly with Christmas as most of us know it, but the Revels is a fascinating way to spend part of the holiday season. 

Pat Craig is the Times theater critic. He can be reached at 925-945-4736 or at pcraig@cctimes.com.