Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

“ Mass was such a success, on somany levels, that this felt like something special tomake happen again.” WELZ KAUFFMAN Above: Alsop leads the dress rehearsal of Ravinia’s 2 18 production of Mass , which will be reprised on July 2 and again feature Paulo S]ot as the Celebrant. Below: Ravinia President and CEO Wel] Kauffman S]ot and Alsop (left to right) chat after the dress rehearsal for the festival’s original production of Mass , named one of the top 1 classical events of 2 18 by the Chicago Tribune . Famous Father Girl —for “Leonard Bernstein: Man For All Music” A compendium of stories, songs, and symphonic music will compose this CSO program of extracts from his broad repertoire, with soloists ranging from young instrumental vir- tuosi Ifetayo Ali-Landing and Harmony Zhu to Met star Isabel Leonard alongside Szot, DeYoung, and Nilsen to the CSO’s own concertmaster, Robert Chen. In his capacity as America’s music teacher, Bernstein wanted nothing more than to gather as many people as possible under the big tent of music, to embrace music as a necessary part of their daily lives. e festival’s RaviniaMusicBox Experience Center, a major addition to the park scheduled to open on the North Lawn later this summer, promises to carry the maestro’s mission forward in the sylvan beauty of Ravinia. How appropriate, then, that the Experience Center’s gallery space [supported by the Ravinia Associates Board] should be in- augurated with the Grammy Museum’s traveling Leonard Bern- stein exhibit, which explores Bernstein’s enormous impact on the cultural life of his era. e exhibit, which is set to open July , will include video elements and interactive displays, along with his childhood piano and the desk at which he wrote West Side Story . Tickets will be free to concertgoers on a rst-come basis. “ e video portion of the show includes Lenny’s family background, testimonials from other artists, Bernstein con- ducting, lots of really cool stu ,” Kau man explains. “It’s one of the best Bernstein retrospectives I have seen.” Even with this profusion of Bernsteiniana at Ravinia over these two summers, there is quite enough of the master’s music le over to comfortably stock future festival seasons. (Consid- er his “Age of Anxiety” and “Kaddish” Symphonies, the ballets Facsimile and Dybbuk, the musicals On the Town and Wonderful Town, and the opera A Quiet Place, not to mention more from Ber- nstein’s rich catalogue of songs for the musical theater and concert hall.) Which is why Alsop and Kau man consider the Bernstein celebration to be an open-ended project, possibly extending into the festival season and even beyond. “Bernstein is the gi that keeps on giving,” says Alsop, with a smile. For his part, Kau man cites the best of all possible reasons for Ravinia to cel- ebrate America’s greatest musical gure in perpetuity, if the festival chooses to do so. “ ere was nobody like Lenny, and there won’t be anybody like him again,” he says. John von Rhein retired as classical music critic of the Chicago Tribune in July 2 18 after more than years in that position. He continues to write about music and performances on a freelance basis. RUSSELL JENKINS/RAVINIA 14 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 15 – JULY 28, 2019