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'Too Hot to Handel' is light but satisfying

Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah 8 p.m. tonight at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Carol Morsani Hall. $50.50, $42.50, $35.50, $22.50, $15.50 plus service charge. Call (813) 286-2403 or go to tbpac.org.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published December 8, 2005

CLEARWATER - It may be too early to call it a Christmas tradition, but certainly the Florida Orchestra's Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah is cementing its reputation as a highlight of holiday entertainment.

The crowd-pleasing mixture of pop, gospel jazz and classical music made its local debut last year and surprised audiences with its joy and power.

This year, the opening night performance at Ruth Eckerd Hall didn't surprise, but it certainly lived up to the reputation it developed a year ago.

The orchestra itself was solid, which is to be expected, but the real stars of the piece are three vocal soloists, all returning from last year's performance, and the phenomenal choir from Tampa's Without Walls International Church.

Tenor Robert Mack, soprano Natalie Oliver-Atherton and mezzo-soprano Cheryl Dyrithe Barnes seem genetically engineered to perform Too Hot to Handel. They all wield the rare but requisite combination of classical chops, jazz improvisational skills and brightly informal stage presences the piece required. Mack was a clear audience favorite, winning cheers for both his operatic depth and his two credible scat solos.

The choir from Without Walls, under the direction of Keith Dobbins, again performed with precision and emotion. If they were out of their element performing pseudoclassical music in a concert hall, they didn't let it show. Clad in purple and black robes and filling the stage behind the orchestra, they looked and sounded as though they were as thrilled as they were thrilling.

The musicians of the orchestra, obviously and understandably, sounded much more comfortable when the arrangement slid toward the classical end of the scale. But they also showed they could play jazz with some conviction, especially during a fluid and fiery saxophone solo by David Pate and a boogie-tinged piano solo by Mary Pendleton.

Still, for anyone who really loved Handel or classical music in general, there were moments when the concert (which will be repeated this evening at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center) is frustratingly lightweight. Arrangers Robert Christianson and Gary Anderson have done an admirable job of blending disparate styles into a more-or-less cohesive whole, but at times the arrangement brings Handel's soaring masterpiece to the brink of easy listening. On more than a few occasions, their arrangement sounds more like TV-show theme music than either classical or gospel. It's closer to Hawaii Five-O than to Handel.

But it's a holiday pops concert, and audiences probably aren't looking for anything to weighty. Too Hot to Handel, despite some flaws and its embarrassingly silly title, offers a lot more substance than most seasonal entertainment, along with moments of serious musical thrills, complemented by an amiable and audience-friendly attitude.

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:49:13]