Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 7

golden shovel used for the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial, on December 2, 1964. By mid-1966, Bernstein had received two invita- tions from Jacqueline Kennedy connected to the emerging cultural center. The composer-con- ductor initially agreed to serve as the center’s artistic director, but later declined the position. However, Bernstein gladly accepted Mrs. Ken- nedy’s commission for a new composition to celebrate the opening of the center: “the highest honor I have ever been accorded.” Conducting engagements had ruthlessly limited his time for composition; Bernstein had produced only two major compositions over the previous decade since West Side Story : Symphony No. 3 ( Kad- dish ) and the Chichester Psalms . Construction delays pushed the Kennedy Cen- ter opening beyond the scheduled 1969 date. Meanwhile, Bernstein had begun envisioning a large-scale theatrical setting of the Mass—in honor of the Kennedys, who were Catholic— that confronted current issues in a contem- porary style. This approach mirrored recent changes in the Catholic Church, instituted by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), that emphasized ecumenical dialogue, vernacular languages in worship, and popular styles of li- turgical music and art. Seemingly with time to spare before the opening, Bernstein turned his attention to other projects. Immediately he flew to Los Angeles to oversee a revival of Candide at Royce Hall. His second collection of essays, The Infinite Variety of Music , was published in August 1966. Two months later, Bernstein announced plans to retire as music di- rector of the New York Philharmonic at the end of his current contract (1969), when he would receive the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor. His guest conducting engagements, most nota- bly with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic, increased. One project that consumed much of Bernstein’s time was a film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, who had turned his attention to religious sub- jects after the successes of two recent Shake- speare films, The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and Romeo and Juliet (1968). Zeffirelli and Bernstein labored for three months on a portrayal of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. When creative dif- ferences drove Bernstein and his lyricist, Leon- ard Cohen, from the project, Zeffirelli turned to Italian film composer Riziero (“Riz”) Ortolani and pop singer-songwriter Donovan to write the Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972) soundtrack. Bernstein did not leave the project empty-hand- ed. Two remnants eventually made their way into Mass : the well-known “Simple Song” heard in the Devotion before Mass and a quatrain by Paul Simon (“Half of the people are stoned”), which emerged as a Trope in the Gloria . Any disappointment Bernstein suffered from the collapse of the Saint Francis project quickly dis- sipated amid work on a musical theater adap- tation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle , which also fizzled after two months. The new opening date for the Kennedy Cen- ter—September 8, 1971—crept closer. Though Bernstein’s concept for Mass had come into focus, actual composition lagged far behind schedule. Back in New York after conducting the New York Philharmonic on a tour of Japan and the southern United States in August and June 1970, Bernstein learned that his Kennedy Center colleague Roger L. Stevens had suffered a heart attack. While visiting the hospital, Bern- stein asked what he could do for his convalesc- ing friend. “Lenny, one thing I’d like to have you do for me is finish Mass ,” Stevens replied. This was the incentive Bernstein needed to quicken his work. In December, Bernstein retreated to the Mac- Dowell Colony in Peterborough, NH, for artis- tic inspiration and concentrated work on Mass . There, a large portion of its music was assem- bled from existing material or was newly com- posed. Engagements with the Vienna Philhar- monic—live filming of Mahler symphonies and a European tour—occupied February through May. Back in the US, Bernstein resumed his frenzied work on Mass , refining references to Christian ritual and political resistance, devel- oping English lyrics to match the Latin liturgical text, and imposing order and coherence on the overall dramatic structure. His consultations with antiwar activist Catholic priests Father Daniel Berrigan and Father Phil- ip Berrigan, who was imprisoned in the Fed- eral Correctional Institution at Danbury along with six others (the “Harrisburg Seven”) for allegedly plotting to kidnap National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, caught the attention of President Richard Nixon and the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. Based on information from an unknown prison informant, the FBI issued two memos on “Proposed Plans of Antiwar Elements to Embarrass the United States Government.” Bernstein’s forthcoming Mass stood at the cen- ter of this imagined conspiracy. In the second memo (August 16, 1971), R.L. Shackelford wrote to C.D. Brennan “To advise that information re- garding a previously reported plot by Leonard Bernstein, conductor and composer, to embar- rass the President and other government offi- cials through an antiwar and anti-Government musical composition to be played at the dedica- tion of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been reported by the press.” The memo stated that, based on this information, President Nixon had decided not to attend the Kennedy Center opening “in order to minimize the ef- fectiveness of Bernstein’s plot to embarrass the administration.” Bernstein still had not identified a collabora- tor to write the English lyrics by June, leaving the composer “terribly depressed,” according to his sister Shirley. (Stephen Sondheim, who President John F. Kennedy with architect Edward Durell Stone (to his left) and the model of the National Cultural Center that would later bear his name Leonard Bernstein (1971) RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 15 – JULY 21, 2019 92