CLASSICAL MUSIC

With a powerful burgundy voice, bass Jason Hardy won the audience over with his humorous antics and expression in James Sellars's "JNNY," and Christopher Berg's "Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed)," and his lusty portrayal of the Wolf in "Hey Little Girl" from Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods." But he set aside the comedy to sing poignantly in Richard Pearson Thomas's "Jordan."

Soprano Marjorie Owens commanded a rich, voluminous voice, singing with haunting intensity in Lee Hoiby's "Jabberwocky" and Paul Moravec's "The Rose and the Nightingale." Whenever she lightened her sound and vibrato, as she did during Adam Guettel's "Migratory V," her voice carried more emotional impact.

The sweet, flute-like timbre of Evelyn Pollock's soprano coasted dreamily in "Penelope's Song" by John Musto. Her voice naturally filled the role of Little Red Riding Hood opposite Hardy's Wolf and took a wistful turn in William Harvey's "When I Have Fears."

Javier Abreu's romantic-sounding tenor clung to the lyricism of Guettel's "Hero and Leander." He sang Berg's "To You" as though serenading a lover outside her window.

Artistic Director Steven Blier pulled double duty as accompanist and host, navigating the piano parts deftly and giving witty explications of the songs and composers.

-- Grace Jean

Elizabeth Baber and Charles Weaver

In its closing days, the Washington Early Music Festival became even more festive than usual by presenting noontime concerts on weekdays, when most early-music fans are presumably working. Those who used their lunch hours to scoot over to Capitol Hill's St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Friday, though, caught a treat: soprano Elizabeth Baber and lutenist Charles Weaver in a captivating program of Spanish songs from around the turn of the 16th century.

The stunner of the afternoon was Baber. Her voice is incredibly pure and sounds nearly effortless; the texts she sang came across with remarkable clarity. While her performance of Josquin des Prez's "Ave Maria" had an angelic brightness and dedication, eleswhere she showed an ability to seduce; in "Al alva venid," a lament for an absent lover, every note seemed to ache for a future meeting. Weaver supported her adeptly and displayed impressive chops in his few solo pieces, particularly the appropriately spontaneous "Fantasia que contrahaze la harpe en la manera de Luduvico," wrtten in the improvisational style of the eponymous instrumentalist.

The duo also showed imagination in programming, organizing a plethora of short pieces into linked sets. The most striking set collected songs describing the assault on the last Moorish outposts in Spain. The ugly jingoism of the texts (alluded to in remarks by Weaver) contrasted uneasily with the lovely melodies and the impeccable performances, and when Baber dropped into speech for the last line of the final song to declare victory, the effect was a little chilling -- both for the content and because it broke the spell her voice had cast.

-- Andrew Lindemann Malone