Marina Sirtis with Orchestra 2001

For its season opener, Orchestra 2001 delivered the kind of near miss that an innovative organization has to produce now and then. The main event of the evening was a performance by a guest star who didn't sing a note.

The program mixed the heavily credentialed new with the unfamiliar old. The new items were two pieces by Osvaldo Golijov, a contemporary composer whose lengthy résumé includes a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award. The older item was a Richard Strauss entry in an odd genre: a recitation with a musical accompaniment.

Golijov is an Israeli composer who grew up in Argentina, and his music has been influenced by the tango as well as the Yiddish and Gypsy traditions. His Last Round, for two string quartets and bass, emulates the bandoneon, an accordion-instrument used in tango ensembles. The first section of Last Round, according to his notes, represents the "violent compression" of the instrument, and the second the "long sigh" created by its opening.

Almost monotonous

I found the first section repetitious to the point of monotony. The second section added some spice by shifting to broader, more poetic elements; and the other Golijov piece, Lullaby and Doina, included interesting wind sonorities and a Yiddish lullaby introduced by the viola. But neither piece inspired me to run out and look for more work by the same composer.

Richard Strauss's Enoch Arden adds a piano accompaniment to a long narrative poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The plot revolves around a familiar triangle: Three children play together and Enoch eventually claims Annie Lee for his own, leaving Nice Guy Phillip moping on the sidelines.

Then circumstances force Enoch to accept a post on a ship. The ship is wrecked and Enoch is marooned on an island. Phillip supports Annie and her two children, but she makes him wait 11 years before she concedes that Enoch must be dead.

Enoch, having been rescued by a passing ship, slips into the town unannounced and spies the new family in their garden. His rage mounts as he sees Phillip with his wife and his children. But his better nature wins the battle and he leaves them to their happiness.

Trekkie virtuoso

Strauss's accompaniment mostly provided breaks in the narration and created an overall mood. The evening's real star was the narrator, Marina Sirtis, who presented a virtuoso display of the actor's craft.

I'm not a trekkie, so I'm unfamiliar with Sirtis's work as Star Fleet Commander Deanna Troi in the Star Trek: the Next Generation series. But she's clearly an actress who knows her business.

A lesser performer might have settled for a simple declamation of the poem. Sirtis applied her skills to every line. Much of the poem is told in dialogue, and she acted out all the dialogue passages as if they were scenes in a play.

The evening's high point was the climactic scene, which played like an aria in an opera. The surge in Strauss's music and the rising passion in Sirtis's voice climbed to a peak that would have created the full emotional effect even if you hadn't understood a word of the language.

Enoch Arden is a sentimental, eminently Victorian tale, but Tennyson told it well; Strauss's music added a veneer of class; and Sirtis milked it for everything it has to offer. The program may not have been Orchestra 2001's finest outing, but I'll never forget Enoch's turmoil as he wrestled with himself in the dark outside the garden. Verdi couldn't have done it better.