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October 9, 2008
The BSO To Tackle Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Mass’
Adam Stone
Special to the Jewish Times
Leonard Bernstein composed “Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers” in 1971 to celebrate the opening of Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It is a sprawling work, blending Broadway, pop and classical sensibilities, replete with song and movement.
The Washington Post hailed its opening as “the greatest music Bernstein has ever written,” but The New York Times called it “cheap and vulgar.”
Decide for yourself. Marin Alsop will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a performance of “Mass” Oct. 16-18 at Baltimore’s Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and Oct. 26 at the John F. Kennedy Center.
Set in the context of a Catholic mass, Bernstein’s work is a highly spiritual composition, touching frequently on aspects of the late composer’s Jewish faith. Ms. Alsop points to a number of Jewish references, as in the Sanctus passage: “[A] song is beginning, Is beginning to grow, Take wing, and rise up singing. From me and my soul. Kadosh, Kadosh! [Holy, holy!]”
And again in Sanctus: “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh Adonai ts’vaot M’lo chol haaretz k’vodo. Baruch ha’ba B’shem Adonai, B’shem Adonai! [Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts. All the heavens and earth are full of His glory!]”
In an e-mail interview, Ms. Alsop said, “You can get a sense of Bernstein’s amazing universal embrace in this work. The morphing from one language, one musical style to the next within a larger arching form… is truly astonishing.”
On one hand, she said, the central character is looking for fundamental answers to life’s big questions: “Why should I believe in God? One god, 30 gods? Do they believe in me?”
At the same time, the answers intersect with the biggest issues of the day. “How can there be a God when war prevails now and throughout history? Dona Nobis Pacem [give us peace] becomes a protest mantra! The Vietnam war was still a very prominent and very divisive issue in America at the time — like the current Iraq war,” Ms. Alsop said.
Put down on paper, these sound like intellectual subtleties, yet “Mass” is foremost an emotional, visceral experience. It muscles its way through 32 different songs in three languages, melding jazz, blues and other contemporary sounds with traditional classical arrangements.
It all culminates in the hero’s complete breakdown, a collapse onstage topped by the sacrilegious act of hurling down the sacred communion chalice. The lead character breaks into wild song. A boy soprano restores peace with a “Simple Song.”
“Mass” is to be the centerpiece of the BSO’s 2008-2009 season, a celebration of the 90th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth. The orchestra plans to pull out all the stops, with nearly 250 performers divided into two different orchestras with two organs, nine percussionists, the Morgan State University Choir and more.
Ms. Alsop will conduct the BSO, an appropriate pairing since she was a Bernstein protégée. More than this, Ms. Alsop is a distinguished voice on the classical scene, not least for holding the distinction of being the first woman to head a major American orchestra.
Prior to taking up with the BSO in 2007, she served as principal conductor of the Bournemouth (U.K.) Symphony. In 2005, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. Last year, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award, and this year she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ms. Alsop said she comes to “Mass” with an eagerness to meet the challenges posed by the piece.
“‘Mass’ is almost unlike any other work to put together,” she said. “The rehearsal process, from casting through performances, is a journey of discovery and connecting unto itself. I have to take approximately 200 people and create a family that can work towards a unified purpose. This is demanding, exhilarating and hugely rewarding — for everyone involved, if I do my job correctly!
“I am the messenger for Bernstein, and it is my responsibility to carry his story through from performers to listeners in a compelling, convincing and most importantly, an authentic manner.”
For ticket information, call 410-783-8000.
Adam Stone is an Annapolis-based free-lance writer.