The Press Democrat  Tenor Clement returns for Kahane project Symphony, 2 choirs and community combine in Tippett's compelling 'A Child of Our Time' April 07, 2002 By DIANE PETERSON As one of four vocalists performing next weekend at the Santa Rosa Symphony's performance of Sr. Michael Tippett's "A Child of Our Time," tenor Richard Clement will spend the majority of his time sitting onstage, just listening.  What goes through a singer's head during those long intervals between solos?  "Every time you do it, you're self-conscious, but once the music starts, you get swept up in it," Clement said in a phone interview from his Upper West Side apartment in New York. "The only way for me to survive is to experience the whole thing as the audience does. I try to let myself go into it. It's distracting if the singers look blankly out in space."  One of the leading young American lyric tenors of our time, Clement is no stranger to the Santa Rosa Symphony and its fans. Last season, he sang Britten's haunting "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings." Just three years ago, he sang the tenor part in the symphony's performance of Britten's masterful "War Requiem."  Wide-ranging project  Like the "War Requiem," "A Child of Our Time" was conceived by Santa Rosa Symphony Music Director Jeffrey Kahane as a wide-ranging community and educational project, involving both the Sonoma County Bach Choir led by Bob Worth and the Santa Rosa High School Concert Choir led by Dan Earl.  I remember it as an entire community event," Clement said of the "War Requiem" project. "It was nice that the whole community seemed to be involved in some way. Most people there -- whether on stage or in the audience -- had something invested in it." "A Child of Our Time" entails an academic component as well. The faculty and students of Santa Rosa High School's ArtQuest program have collaborated with the symphony on a multidisciplinary curriculum revolving around the work's central theme of oppression.  "The events of Sept. 11 have made the entire 'A Child of Our Time' project an even more urgent and compelling one," said Kahane.  "In our collective grief, shock and anger, it is imperative that we look into our own souls, and encourage our children to do the same, and examine the ways that blind hatred of 'the other' has shaped, and continues to shape, the human story."  Based on the baroque oratorio form used in Bach's Passions and Handel's "Messiah," "A Child of Our Time" is divided into three parts, with arias, ensembles and choruses interspersed with a narrative recitative.  African-American spirituals  Instead of using Bach's German chorales, however, Tippett punctuates the piece with familiar African-American spirituals -- "Go Down Moses" and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" -- that lift the work out of its time and make its appeal universal.  The work was premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in London on March 19, 1944.  "Most people who know it think it's one of the greatest pieces ever," said Clement.  "The spirituals seem to me a little derivative, but the last spiritual is so beautiful, and so well done, that whatever you think about what comes before, it's powerful."  Written at the dawn of World War II, from 1939 to 1941, "A Child of Our Time" addresses the issue of racial and religious oppression. More specifically, it tells the real-life story of a young Polish-Jewish boy who, frustrated over the persecution of his parents, kills a German diplomat. The young man is imprisoned, and his act results in the catastrophic Kristallnacht, a wave of retaliatory pogroms by the Nazis aimed at the businesses and synagogues of Germany's Jews.  In Part II, the soloists step into more dramatic roles, playing the parts of the boy's Mother, the Aunt, the Boy and the Uncle.  "This piece is a little bit of a hybrid, because the middle section does tell a story, but it's not a full story," said Clement.  In Part III, the work explores the consequences of seeking justice through violence and tries to resolve the suffering depicted in the work's central, epic section.  The oratorio ends on a deeply moving note, with the hope-filled "Deep River" spiritual: "I want to cross over into camp-ground Lord ... Walk into heaven and take my seat, cast my crown at Jesus' feet."  "The choice of 'Deep River' is brilliant," said Clement. "In 1942, the Jews were being slaughtered and imprisoned and killed, and they were helpless to do anything about it. At that time, that's all you could do is be comforting."  At the suggestion of English poet T.S. Eliot, Tippett wrote his own words so as not to overwhelm the music, and the resulting text is both simple and complex.  "Some of it is easy, and some of it I don't quite understand," said Clement. "Tippett was very smart and very strange, and I don't know some of what's going on in this piece. It seems he's being purposely obtuse."  When the audience arrives at the concert, the text of the work will be displayed in the lobby, along with corresponding paintings, sculptures and poetry created by Santa Rosa High School students.  Musical family  Clement was born in Atlanta and grew up in a musical household -- both of his parents were singers. Clement's father was once asked to fill in for a tenor in the Robert Shaw Chorale, but turned down the job because his wife was pregnant. In a strange twist of fate, the son ended up performing. "He gave up and got a real job," said Clement. "Years later, I ended up being Mr. Shaw's principal tenor, up until he died three years ago."  Clement attended Georgia State, then got his master's degree from Cincinnati Conservatory. His career took off quickly.  "My second job was with the Boston Symphony in Carnegie Hall," he said.  Clement straddles both the opera house and the concert hall, performing about four operas, a dozen concerts, and a handful of recitals a year.  This spring, Clement will sing Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglia" with the New York Philharmonic, Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" with the Detroit Symphony and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 with the Atlanta Symphony.  Clement has not sung "A Child of His Time" before, but he said he learned the notes quickly.  "This piece is very, very involved, but it's not nearly as complicated as the 'War Requiem,'" he said.  Once he starts rehearsing with Kahane and the symphony, Clement hopes to come up with a "philosophy" about the work and develop his interpretative approach.  "Typically, over time, the words and the music come to mean something very specific to me," he said. "Not just the words, but what the music is saying about the words, and what words are being emphasized."  Kahane's enthusiasm applauded  Clement is looking forward to working with Kahane again, because "unlike a lot of conductors, he's very enthusiastic and very much about the music and the composer."  "He's always focused on trying to make the piece something special," said Clement.  Clement is also looking forward to discussing "A Child of Our Time" with African-American soprano Janice Chandler, who also sang in the "War Requiem." Mezzo-soprano Milagro Vargas and bass-baritone Derrick Parker round out the soloists.  "I've always had a hard time with white people singing Negro spirituals, and these were written through the eyes of a 35-year-old, homosexual Englishman from the upper-middle-class," he said. "They seem a little square and straight-jacketed.  "But I think it was a pretty brilliant idea to use them," he added. "If you write a piece in 1942 about being oppressed and the pogroms, and you use something of that time, it gets stuck being a piece about World War II and the holocaust. But if you use Negro spirituals, it broadens it.  "Everyone knows these spirituals, so it has an immediate, emotional impact."  You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or e-mail dpeterson@pressdemocrat.com.