I love a creatively and thoughtfully produced opera as much as anyone — but I find I am more and more drawn to the oratorio format, where the focus is squarely on the musical telling of the story. Stripped of production elements like sets, lighting effects, costumes, and staging, the experience is distilled down to the words and the music. Haydn’s “The Creation” is one of the best examples of this: an epic story that unfolds through incredibly rich music. Seattle Symphony’s performance on June 8 told it well.

Setting the Stage With Chaos and Light

In the beginning (as the opening lyric says), one of the work’s best features is the orchestral introduction dubbed ‘Representation of Chaos.’ It is forward-looking music — with its unexpected contrasts and restless dissonance, it leans more toward Beethoven than looks back at Mozart. Haydn famously opens with a unison C chord on a fermata to depict the void from which the creation story grows. Conductor David Robertson seemed eager to launch into the narrative and rushed this moment and its aftermath — which is marked ‘Largo’ in the score — glossing over instead of relishing the mood of cosmic mystery. However, Robertson gave the work’s next big moment its full due: on the words ‘And there was light,’ the chorus and orchestra delivered a huge C-major chord that pierced the darkness. Robertson clearly admires this work and found moments big and small to illuminate with the soloists and orchestra. Just one that caught my ear and eyes in the introduction was an interesting ‘throbbing’ sonic effect when the violins all released their bows upward in unison on a recurring musical phrase. Seeing how the effect was created made it all the more effective.

English Text and Excellent Diction

This performance was sung in English with impeccable diction from both soloists and chorus (ah, the joy of crystal-clear final consonants). Surtitles were projected above the stage, but they felt superfluous since nothing was being translated and the words were so easily understood. Interestingly, the original libretto was written in English, drawing on Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and the King James Bible. Before he began composing, Haydn had it translated into German and the first publication of the score was in both languages to appeal to audiences in Europe and England. It has never fallen out of the standard repertoire and is regularly performed and recorded often in both languages. Hearing the story told in my native language no doubt heightened the immediacy of the storytelling.

Three Angels Carried the Story

Most of the storytelling falls to the three soloists portraying archangels, and all three embraced their roles. Bass-baritone Christopher Humbert Jr., as the angel Raphael, is the first voice we hear, and much of the narrative movement relies on him. From his opening phrase — ‘In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth’ — I relaxed and leaned forward, knowing we were in good hands. Humbert had clarion vocal power and a commanding presence throughout Parts One and Two. His confident stillness was offset with small expressive details, like his charming, subtle gesture to express ‘the light and flakey snow.’ His voice moved through the wide range of material with ease, and he was especially strong in the lower register, delivering a satisfying long-held low D on the word ‘worm’ in the colorful section of the score that describes the menagerie of animals as they are created, ‘Straight opening her fertile womb.’

Tenor Nicholas Phan, as the angel Uriel, sang with conviction, a glint in his eye, and vocal variety — all trademarks of a good storyteller. His soft, lyrical moments were beautifully poised and expressive. In contrast, he struggled in the more declamatory passages; perhaps pushing for volume and intensity, his tone sometimes became bottled and mealy in texture, especially on ‘ah’ vowels (‘And God divided the light from the darkness’).

Soprano Heidi Stober as the angel Gabriel brought not only a flexible and lovely lyric soprano but also the presence of a stage actor. She held a score and glanced at it as is customary in oratorio, but nothing in her energy felt like this was merely a concert. She was always actively engaged whether she was singing or listening, her expressive face and sparkling eyes reacting to everything around her. Gabriel has three terrific arias, and in the first, ‘The marvelous work behold amazed,’ Stober sang majestically, culminating in a soaring high C that conveyed the ‘glorious hierarchy of heaven.’

In her second aria, ‘With verdure clad the fields appear,’ Stober told the origin story of the trees, grass, and flowers with pretty pastel tonal colors and poised phrasing. However, the orchestra’s tempo felt too fast, its volume too strong, and its texture too rich for the gentle pastoral mood the aria calls for, almost to the point of overshadowing Stober.

‘On mighty pens uplifted soars the eagle aloft,’ Gabriel’s third aria, is a florid celebration of the creation of birds, including the lark, dove, and nightingale. Haydn uses coloratura filigree in the vocal line — with flutes prominently featured — to paint this avian scene. It could come off as cliché, but he handles it so skillfully that it remains fresh and delightful. Stober’s silvery tone, crisp trills, and especially her pure, floating delivery of the repeated word ‘cooing’ made it a highlight. Readers in the Pacific Northwest may well want to catch Stober in the title role of Richard Strauss’s infrequently performed “Daphne” with the Seattle Opera next season.

An Anticlimactic Ending

Part Two ends with the creation of humankind, then Part Three moves to the Garden of Eden and introduces Adam (a baritone) and Eve (a soprano), with only brief narration from Uriel. Many listeners — myself included — find this third part somewhat underwhelming musically and dramatically. The music essentially consists of two cheerful, fairly simple duets between Adam and Eve that are all full of gratitude and bliss. With the creation narrative complete, the energy tapers off and we have landed in an afterthought, a minor epilogue. There is no serpent, no temptation, no fall from grace — just a brief warning from Uriel: ‘O! happy pair and happy still might be, if not misled by false conceit…’ Even this is delivered in straightforward recitative with no musical shadowing to hint at the trouble ahead, which is surprising, given how much expressive color Haydn uses elsewhere in the score.

Doubling Roles: A Missed Opportunity

Adam and Eve are often sung by the same soprano and bass who sing the angels — which is how it was done in Haydn’s time, and how it was done here with Stober and Humbert. I have seen it performed with five soloists — bringing in new singers for Adam and Eve — and I prefer that approach. While its costs more to hire the additional soloists, using different singers for this pair of humans acknowledges a notable shift in the music and provides more dramatic contrast. Whereas the angels require individual flair, Adam and Eve are written as a rather humble, close-knit musical pair — more like Figaro and Susanna in “Le Nozze di Figaro.” Ideally, they would be cast to optimize vocal blend, stylistic synchrony, and emotional chemistry. Humbert was less convincing in this shift from archangel to modest human; his robust vocal style did not ideally suit the sculpted and sustained Mozartean lines of the duets. Stober adapted better to Eve, moving from the brilliant Gabriel to the innocent, subservient Eve by adding a soft-grained sheen to her phrasing. Of special note is how she handled the dated lines of a wife’s subservience to her husband (‘My all, thy will is law to me…’) with dignity.

The Chorus Shines Bright

Large and complex choral interjections are central to this work, nearly all of them hymns of praise to God. The Seattle Symphony Chorale, prepared by Joseph Crnko, sang them with radiant tone and tight articulation. The moving lines of the different vocal parts were distinctly contoured. The final chorus that declaims, ‘Sing the Lord ye voices all,’ summarized the evening well — it was a thrill to get lost inside all these amazing musical voices.