Goliath in Milan

Composer Darius Milhaud's urge to giantism began 40 years ago, at a time when he was intriguing the world's musical taste buds with a potage of polytonality sweetened by a dash of essence-of-jazz. His first large work was a musical setting for Aeschylus' Orestes, and it used whistling winds, human groans and shouts along with percussion accompaniment. Since then, whether acting as French Minister to Brazil or teaching composition at California's Mills College, Milhaud has turned out a compulsive stream of music ranging in quality from excellent to insufferable and in gimmicks from a "spectacle with fireworks" to a suite for a kind of electronic banshee called ondes martenot. His operas, e.g., Christopher Columbus (1928), Bolivar (1943) approached the length of the Wagner marathons. Last week the biggest of Milhaud's operas to date, his Old Testament epic David, had its first stage production at Milan's La Scala. It strained even a house accustomed to spettacolo productions.

David's size comes partly from French Librettist Armand Lunel's story, which includes practically every episode of the Biblical story, partly from Milhaud's use of a 96-voice chorus to chant modern Israeli reaction to the ancient action. The work opens on a CinemaScope-like prospect of old Israel, where young David is chosen by Samuel to be future king while trumpets in the orchestra blare out a forecast of future greatness. After that, scene after scene follows Biblical copy--the slaying of Goliath, David being banished by Saul, war with the Amalekites, Saul's death. After Jerusalem rose symbolically in the background (end of Act III), the Milan crowd cheered and Composer Milhaud himself--badly handicapped by arthritis--came out for a bow.

But there was more, much more, all the way to the death of Absalom and finally the anointing of Solomon. Weary Milanese leaned forward in their seats expectantly every time David (heroically sung by Baritone Anselmo Colzani) or Saul (Basso Nicola Rossi-Lemeni) seemed about to soar off into an honest aria. But, as if the composer had suddenly remembered that there were several more Old Testament chapters to cover, the score invariably cut the solos short. When it was over, after four hours and 24 scenes, the crowd scattered as if the theater were on fire.

Critics called David "a noble work," found much of the music flat, and concentrated their praise on the backstage heroics involved in handling the cast of 500, 1,200 costumes, 125 different lighting effects and masses of reliable, flyable and sinkable scenery. For all its dramatics, David's music seemed to make little lasting impression, perhaps because of so much distraction onstage. The David-size works of a composer such as Gian-Carlo Menotti may hit the mark better than Milhaud's Goliath-size epics.

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