Massenet oratorio luminous> `Eve’ 1st of annual affairs

When he died in 1912, Jules Massenet was one of the wealthiest composers who ever lived. He was a suave and urbane man, popular and respected. Although he remains an established name among opera companies, you’re not likely to hear his music performed regularly — unless you live in the Greater Bangor area.

A year ago, the Massenet Society of America entrusted to the University of Maine its archives of the most complete North American collection of the French composer’s works. One of the terms of the acquisition was that UM perform a Massenet piece every year for a decade, and then make a long-term commitment to programming French music.

Friday’s performance of Massenet’s oratorio “Eve” at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor was the first of these yearly concerts. If the success of the concert tells us anything, it’s likely these French music concerts will become a cherished annual tradition in the Bangor area.

In large part, this is because Massenet’s music is impeccably crafted and joyfully direct. The inexhaustible flow of lovely melody has the power to enchant and transform. Massenet also wrote with a special appreciation of women’s voices, and his kindnesses make for the loveliest of arias.

Several hundred music lovers attended last night’s concert, which was amiable and luminous. Ludlow Hallman conducted the powerful UM Oratorio Society with flair, and principal singers — Nancy Ellen Ogle, John Gelsinger and Francis John Vogt — delivered the music with drama and clear intonation. As Eve, Ogle was radiant and effusive in a most becoming way. Her voice was in fine shape for the concert, and she brought a beaming strength to the role.

Hallman’s orchestra was immensely impressive and elegant. It caught the nuances of Massenet’s gentle phrases and then thundered through the final section of retribution. Renditions of the Adam and Eve story can be very heavy, but Massenet’s had a lightness, with more of a focus on the first story of passionate lovers than on banishment and sin.

The concert began with Charles Edouard Lefebvre’s Meditation Op. 68, conducted with stunning romanticism by Anatole Wieck, and featuring Kevin Birch doing his skillful work on the church’s famed organ.

The only gaffe in the evening was that none of the UM officials took the time to explain the significance of this first concert and of the Massenet collection. Nor did the program give any indication that last night had the potential to be a historic event. That’s truly unfortunate. Maine cultural life, particularly with its hefty Franco population, can only stand to benefit from having more of an emphasis put on French music performance.