Little-known Holst work recalls Britten and Wagner

Gustav Holst is known mostly for “The Planets,” a big, bombastic work that’s been an orchestral staple since 1920 (it plays at the Hollywood Bowl next Tuesday). Last weekend, however, Southwest Chamber Music’s Summer Festival at the Huntington presented one of Holst’s more obscure works: “Savitri,” a chamber opera taken from an ancient Indian poem, “The Mahabharata.”

This short opera was presented in conjunction with the Huntington’s exhibition on writer Christopher Isherwood. Of course, Isherwood had nothing to do with Holst or the work; the only connection between the opera and the exhibition is that both men were British and both were really into Buddhism.

Regardless of the rationale behind the concert performance, the opera is engaging and the music dramatic. Holst loved Wagner and worked for years on an epic Hindu opera along the lines of “The Ring.” He never finished it. But in “Savitri,” you can hear the Wagnerian influence in the tremolo strings and dramatic bass lines as well as a hint of the Grail motif from Parsifal when the character of Death says: “I am he who leadeth men onwards.”

But if the orchestra in “Savitri” sounds like Wagner, the vocal line anticipates the work of Benjamin Britten. Choppy and tonal, with bursts of melody, the sung portions of the piece are decidedly British. The only hint to the opera’s subcontinental setting was a sari worn by singer Suzanna Guzman.

Guzman’s devotion to the title role extended beyond her attire. On Sunday night, she let her voice fly as if she weren’t outside on the small porch of the Huntington Mansion but rather on the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. This made for some thrilling moments, but it often made her lyrics incomprehensible. The male singers, Daniel Plaster and Nicholas Isherwood (no relation to the writer), seemed more accustomed to singing chamber music in intimate settings; but although their diction was clearer, their characterizations were smaller.

The orchestra, led by Jeff von der Schmidt, provided solid, if somewhat scrappy, accompaniment. Perhaps the most evocative aural element in this Buddhist work -- which Holst intended to be performed outdoors -- came courtesy of the Huntington Botanical Garden: the nighttime sounds of crickets, frogs and the wind.