Leonard Bernstein’s MASS for 2012 Adelaide Festival
October 19, 2011 | Author insider
“THIS WILL BE OUR REPLY TO VIOLENCE: TO MAKE MUSIC MORE INTENSELY, MORE BEAUTIFULLY, MORE DEVOTEDLY THAN EVER BEFORE. ”
Paul Grabowsky, Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival 2012 has not programmed an opera for the 2012 Festival, but no matter, as he has scheduled Leonard Bernstein massive and unique work MASS for its Australian premiere.
There’s big – and then there’s Bernstein. From WEST SIDE STORY to CANDIDE, celebrated classical composer Leonard Bernstein knew how to make a big song and dance.
Bernstein regarded MASS, a kaleidoscopic mix of music, dance and theatre featuring a symphony orchestra, a rock band, a choir and opera singers, as his defining achievement. Commissioned for the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, Mass features a small village of performers and a supremely charismatic lead in the Celebrant, performed by the great US singer Jubilant Sykes (pictured above).
The spectacle of MASS is underpinned by a profound statement of human faith that is explosive, cathartic and ultimately uplifting.
Featuring:
CONDUCTOR: KRISTJAN JÄRVI
DIRECTOR: ANDY PACKER
CHORUS DIRECTOR: CARL CROSSIN
SCENIC DESIGNER: GEOFF COBHAM
LIGHTING DESIGNER: MARK PENNINGTON
FEATURING: JUBILANT SYKES — ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA — ABSOLUTE TRIO — ADELAIDE FESTIVAL CHORUS AND CHILDREN’S CHOIR
PRESENTED BY ADELAIDE FESTIVAL AND STATE OPERA OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN ASSOCIATION WITH ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
For further information, dates and ticketing information see:
The Queensland Conservatorium performed Mass in the 80s.
Thanks for the correction about this. The Adelaide Festival thinks it is the Australian Premiere – hence reporting it as such.
CinemaLive, Opera Australia and Sydney Opera House are excited to announce that two of Opera Australia’s most distinctive voices will be singing in Delibes’s luscious and Hindu-inspired opera, Lakmé, shown in cinemas around australia from Dec 2nd for a limited release!!
All I can say is that the festival didn’t seem to check very thoroughly about this being the Australian premiere. Not only does the Brisbane Con performance appear to be the Australian premiere but there was a production of it in Melbourne that the Victorian Arts Centre did in 1988. Not only was it conducted by Carl Davis, a very well known american guest conductor, but it was also directed by Stuart Maunder and appears in his Opera Australia Bio. The Orchestra was the State Orchestra of Victoria.
Really surprised to read that the Adelaide Festival advertised the Bernstein Mass as an Australian premiere. The Queensland Conservatorium performed this in the ’80s, as others have commented above. I remember this evening very well, since I was hired as a young student to assist in the after party preparations at the Conservatorium. Jonathan Welch, of Choir of Hard Knocks fame, performed the lead role. Poor research Adelaide Festival, and also, misleading advertising.