Roomful of Teeth, the self-described "Grammy-winning vocal project," finally made it to San Francisco last week with a short but satisfying one-afternoon-only performance at the new Taube Atrium Theater. The Sunday gig, a co-presentation of San Francisco Performances' Pivot Series and SF Opera Lab, made a happy fit for the group's enticing local debut.
Attracting a diverse crowd of adventurous listeners and selling out the Atrium Theater weeks in advance, "Roomful of Teeth Sings Shaw & Shakespeare" could easily have added another 20 minutes to the play-list and a by-demand second show, but instead left us wanting more.
And that would be a plea for much more from composer Caroline Shaw. The Bay Area premiere of her "Partita for 8 Voices" (nominated for a Grammy, and winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music) got things off to an exciting start and made a radiant introduction for the a cappella singers. Shaw has been a member herself since the cleverly named octet was founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Brad Wells. Her reputation precedes her from the East Coast, going viral with collaborations with Kanye West, compositions for string quartet (her own instrument is the violin) and strikingly experimental works for voice.
Think Bjork, Meredith Monk and even the Swingle Singers, add the a cappella experimentation of Luciano Berio and the word-painting of Robert Ashley and Laurie Anderson, and you will have some sense of Shaw's unique synthesis of technique.
"Partita" is actually a simple piece, as the composer says in the score's inscription, but it sounds complex, and the performers looked understandably intense and enthusiastic as they stretched the possibilities of their own voices. When they harmonized it was thrilling. Singing at music stands under plain lighting and individually miked, the bare-boned production looked like a recording session during a solid final take.
Each movement of "Partita" starts with a nod to the traditional baroque suite, but soon departs into a seemingly improvisatory realm of speech, unusual sounds and a vaguely melodic vocalise. It is beguiling, and the 25-minute workout simply flew by for the audience. They didn't need the following intermission, but the singers got a merciful break.
The second half opened with the West Coast premiere of Shaw's Shakespeare piece "The Isle" (2016). Excerpts from "The Tempest," featuring Ariel, Caliban, and the sorcerer Prospero, give individual musical expression to the characters and create an atmosphere of magical mystery. Composers have been gilding the lily with settings of the Bard from Verdi to Benjamin Britten and Rufus Wainwright, but they have always been most successful when zeroing in on the spirit of the already perfect texts. Shaw proves she is a fresh and innovative interpreter, and "The Isle," like contemporary composer Thomas Ades' opera "The Tempest," gives illumination to the wonderful words.
Two other Shakespeare-inspired scores ended the late-afternoon matinee. Anna Clyne's "Pocket Book" is drawn from the Sonnets, and founding group member, tenor Eric Dudley takes a whack at a Shakespeare Sonnet and includes a soliloquy from "Hamlet" with "QuietUs" (2016).
Commissioned by Roomful of Teeth, Clyne deconstructs Sonnets VIII "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?" and LXV "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea," beginning with the texts, recited by a recorded classical actor. The octet supplied harmonic and melismatic musical interest, but unlike Shaw's compositions, I felt "Pocket Book" needs more than a single hearing. Clyne is reported to be setting more of the Sonnets to add to the collection, which should help her appealing work make a more immediate impact.
Dudley's meditation, or more accurately, riff on Shakespeare rather buries Hamlet's "To be or not to be" and the first four lines of Sonnet LX "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore." He is aiming instead for the musical impulse. You might need the program notes to fully connect the dots, but "QuietUs" is satisfying on its own terms. "If music be the food of love, play on."