Still, it was nothing short of thrilling when, in concert Thursday at Herbst Theatre, Daniels returned to the Baroque repertoire with which he is most closely associated. Joined by conductor Harry Bicket and the English Concert, Daniels made this one of his finest Bay Area appearances to date.
His program, presented by San Francisco Performances, featured Daniels and the ensemble in excerpts from the Handel operas Radamisto, Partenope, and Orlando, and, in the second half, selections by J.S. Bach. With Bicket and his tight-knit chamber group providing splendid support, Daniels demonstrated once again why he is second to none among today’s countertenors.
The South Carolina native has all the requisite attributes for Baroque opera. His muscular, richly colored voice boasts uncommon strength, beauty of tone, and flexibility. Combined with his buffed physique (a friend once remarked that he looked like Colin Farrell’s hunky older brother), Daniels’ vocalism breaks the mold; those hearing him for the first time, including a woman I spoke with at Thursday’s intermission, quickly find themselves reevaluating the old stereotype of the pallid, thin-voiced countertenor.
Not surprisingly, the Handel arias, performed in the second half, yielded the greatest fireworks. This music is Daniels’ strong suit, and the singer, looking fit and relaxed, invested his concert performance with the same blend of forceful vocalism and probing dramatic insight that have made his past San Francisco Opera assignments (including roles in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Giulio Cesare, and Rodelinda) so memorable.
The set began with “Ombra cara” from Radamisto. In recent years, Daniels has made the title role of this opera his own, and his performance of the work’s pivotal aria — sung when Radamisto, heartbroken over his wife’s death, bids her farewell and pledges revenge — was electrifying. “Furibondo spira il vento” from Partenope came next; Daniels, lavishly ornamenting the rage aria, sang with urgency and a brilliant edge capable of raising the hair on the back of your neck.
Even the most extreme technical demands of Baroque opera pose no terrors for this singer. In the extended mad scene from Handel’s Orlando, which closed the second half, Daniels bore down persuasively, soaring through Handel’s arrhythmic writing and dispatching the most difficult coloratura with apparent ease.
All This and Bach, Too
The evening’s greatest surprise, however, came in the first half’s performances of Bach selections. Here, Daniels sounded just as potent. Beginning with Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, the singer projected the composer’s long-breathed lines with elegant tone and firm legato, making the last line, “Drum sollen lauter Tugendgaben/ In meinem Herzen Wohnung haben” (Thus shall naught but virtue’s gifts dwell in my heart) a heart-wrenching statement of the soul’s intent.Qui sedes, from Bach’s B-Minor Mass, sounded heavenly. Katharina Spreckelsen supplied the composer’s haunting oboe d’amore part as Daniels deftly captured the work’s discrete strains of sensuality and ethereal beauty. With Bicket coaxing lovely playing from his musicians, and Daniels articulating the text with poignant clarity, Bach’s paean to peace, “Schlummert ein,” emerged with an almost unbearable sense of longing that seemed to expand and fill every corner of the hall.
Best of all was “Erbarme dich,” performed at the end of the first half. Singing with plush, velvety tone, Daniels invested the great aria from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with grace and fervency. Violinist Alida Schat played her solo part with infinite tenderness.
Throughout the evening, Bicket and the orchestra contributed fleet musicianship. The evening opened with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major; with Bicket conducting from the harpsichord, the strings produced taut, wiry sound and the woodwinds sounded shapely. In the first half, Bicket and his band also performed the Sinfonia from Bach’s Cantata 42, Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats; in the second, the ensemble offered zesty readings of Handel’s Concerto Grosso in A Major, and the Act 2 Passacaglia from Radamisto.
In the end, though, it was Daniels’ night. The singer returned to Radamisto, in the single encore, with an artfully shaped performance of the great Act 3 aria “Qual nave smarrita.” Singing with exquisite tenderness, his voice sounded poised, sweet-toned, and wonderfully direct. It was the performance of a singer completely at home in his artistry.