Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 7

had so successfully partnered with Bernstein on West Side Story , turned down the oppor- tunity.) Drawing on her connections as a the- atrical agent, Shirley suggested a 23-year-old composer-lyricist currently enjoying his first off-Broadway success with Godspell , a musical theater adaptation of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew—Stephen Schwartz. Shirley took her reluctant brother to the Godspell produc- tion, and Lenny subsequently talked through his Mass concept with Schwartz. “Oh my God, this is it,” Lenny reported to Shirley. “Now I can finish Mass .” After two weeks of blazing work together, Ber- nstein and Schwartz had essentially completed Mass . The seasoned composer outlined the var- ied themes in Mass —a memorial for President Kennedy, a reflection of the unrest within so- ciety and organized religion, loss of individual faith, and hope for collective peace—and the younger librettist translated those intentions into contemporary language and a clear dra- matic organization. “What happened was the entire work, from a lyric point of view, is first draft,” Schwartz recalled. “As soon as a piece was completed to some sort of satisfactory end, we moved on. And there really was not the time to go back and improve the work.” Decades later, a more mature wordsmith no longer working un- der the extreme press of time, Schwartz revised his Mass lyrics without changing a note of Bern- stein’s music. The Bernstein Estate accepted the majority of these new lyrics, which premiered in an August 19, 2004, performance at the Holly- wood Bowl. The final month before the premiere brought an avalanche of activity. In early August, Ber- nstein oversaw production of the quadraphon- ic recordings, heard throughout the score, in CBS’s high-tech recording studios in New York City. Hershy Kay and Jonathan Tunick were selected to provide orchestrations. Tom Co- thran—the former music director at KKHI, a now-defunct AM classical music radio station in San Francisco, and Bernstein’s new personal assistant—thoroughly proofread the score and oversaw the frantic last-minute copying of parts in a Washington, DC, hotel room. As the subtitle explains, Mass is not a liturgical work but “a theater piece for singers, players, and dancers,” a musical theater composition based on a ritual model. Bernstein produced his most musically ecumenical score, a kaleidoscope of classical, jazz, rock, musical theater, folk, and gospel styles, in a work that confronted grandi- ose, almost universal human conditions, much as his admired Gustav Mahler had done decades before. “I feel it’s a work I have been writing my entire life,” Bernstein once confessed. The original production of Mass required a large production team: Gordon Davidson (director), Alvin Ailey (choreographer), Oliver Smith (set design), Frank Thompson (costumes), Gilbert Hemsley Jr. (lighting), Maurice Peress (conduc- tor), Roger L. Stevens (producer), and Schuler G. Chapin (associate producer). The cast included Alan Titus (the Celebrant), the Norman Scrib- ner Choir, Berkshire Boys’ Choir, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and instrumentalists. The premiere took place on September 8, 1971, with members of the Kennedy family in atten- dance. President Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline, who by that time had married Aristotle Onassis, was conspicuously absent. Bernstein’s decision to compose a work entitled Mass , the most central musical statement in Christian observance, provoked much contro- versy. Even Peress, a former assistant conductor for Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic, questioned, “What’s a Jewish boy like you doing writing a mass?” This monumental score was Bernstein’s musical exercise in questioning au- thority, examining personal integrity, and—as in the case of his Symphony No. 3 ( Kaddish ), written eight years earlier—struggling bitterly with matters of faith. The Celebrant, whom Per- ess described as suffering a midlife crisis, bears more than a passing resemblance to the 53-year- old composer-conductor-pianist. The choice of Christian subject matter stirred enough hullaba- loo, but Bernstein ignited a veritable firestorm with his approach to dramatizing the venerable Latin text. The Celebrant’s crisis of faith during Fraction : “Things Get Broken,” when he hurls the sacrament to the floor, produced the loudest cries of sacrilege. As in Kaddish , faith is affirmed at the end after a tortured spiritual voyage. I. Devotions before Mass . Pre-recorded voices enter sequentially, pleading for mercy (“Kyrie eleison”) to a highly chromatic melody. Their cacophonous chorus builds “to a point of max- imum confusion,” when a spotlight focuses on a young man in blue jeans and basic shirt—the Celebrant—who sings “A Simple Song” of praise to his own guitar accompaniment. The pre-re- corded voices respond by scat-singing “Alleluia.” II. First Introit (Rondo). The exultation spills onto the stage as a marching band leads the Street Chorus and Children’s Choir to the altar of God. The Celebrant pronounces the liturgical salutation, “Dominus vobiscum” (“God be with you”), which launches an ecstatic Thrice-Triple Canon response, “Et cum spiritu tuo” (“And with Thy spirit”). III. Second Introit . The Celebrant pronounces the Trinitarian blessing (“In the name of the Fa- ther, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”), which the Men and Boy Acolytes repeat to the accom- paniment of a Middle Eastern folk band while processing with the Choir into the chancel and sanctuary. The Celebrant begins a prayer that blossoms into the chorale-like Prayer for the Congregation (“Almighty Father, incline Thine ear”). A pre-recorded oboe performs an atonal solo Epiphany. IV. Confession . As the oboe rhapsodizes, the Cel- ebrant begins Confession. The gathered faithful add their confessions, at first accompanied by the Pit Orchestra, and then, during the blessing of the relics, by electric guitars and finger-snap- ping. The Rock Band begins a heavy blues beat in Trope: “I Don’t Know,” as the First Rock Sing- er challenges the genuineness of confession. Cynicism grows as three Blues Singers and two Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis tours the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with Leonard Bernstein (1972) Scene from the premiere of Bernstein’s Mass JULY 15 – JULY 21, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 93