STERN GROVE FESTIVAL presents SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

A CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN OPERA AND MUSICAL THEATER
Honoring the 90th Birthday of Leonard Bernstein

Featuring Sylvia McNair, soprano with Karen Slack and Tamara Wapinsky, sopranos; Catherine Cook, mezzo-soprano;Thomas Glenn, tenor; Eugene Brancoveanu, baritone; Kenneth Kellogg, bass John Demaine, Conductor with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra

Kay Stern, Concertmaster

PROGRAM 

PORGY AND BESS  (George Gershwin)

    Overture - Orchestra
    Summertime - Karen Slack

In the opening scene of the opera, set in Charleston’s “Catfish Row”--once the site of aristocratic mansions, but now a crowded waterfront tenement--Clara sings a languid lullaby to her baby.
 

STRIKE UP THE BAND (Gershwin)

    The Man I Love -  Sylvia McNair

Despite its enduring popularity, this Gershwin favorite had bad luck on Broadway. Dropped from the 1924 musical Lady, Be Good, it was then included in Strike Up the Band (1927), which closed during its out-of-town tryout. The tune was later dropped from the Ziegfeld hit Rosalie (1928) and from a 1930 revival of Strike up the Band. But the song survives well on its own!
 

REGINA (Marc Blitzstein)

    Birdie’s Aria - Tamara Wapinsky

In this 1949 opera, Birdie Hubbard, a timid, aging Southern belle, reminisces about her aristocratic family plantation Lionnet. Confiding in her niece about her bullying husband Oscar and boorish son Leo, Birdie confesses her “secret” drinking habit that the family calls her “headaches.”
 

Waltz Time With Richard Rodgers (arr. Jim Kessler)

    Sylvia McNair

This artfully arranged bouquet of some of the many waltz songs composed by Richard Rodgers includes selections from several of his Broadway collaborations with lyricists Oscar Hammerstein, Moss Hart, and Stephen Sondheim.
 

PORGY AND BESS (Gershwin)

    I Loves You, Porgy -  Karen Slack and Kenneth Kellogg

The crippled beggar Porgy has given shelter to Bess, who had been with Crown before he fled after committing a murder.  When Bess confesses her love for Porgy and her fear of the affect Crown has on her, Porgy assures Bess that he will take care of her.

    My Man’s Gone Now - Karen Slack

Serena unleashes her grief over the death of her husband Robbins, who has been killed by the troublemaker Crown in a fight over a gambling game.
 

SHOWBOAT (Jerome Kern)

    Bill - Sylvia McNair

The nightclub singer Julie rehearses a new tune for her act, a song with deeply personal meaning, since her husband Steve has left her.
 

THE TENDER LAND (Aaron Copland)

    The Promise of Living - Tamara Wapinsky, Catherine Cook, Thomas Glenn, Eugene Brancoveanu, Kenneth Kellogg

On a Midwest farm in the 1930s, Grandpa Moss has hired two drifters, Tom and Martin, to help with the harvest.  Together with Ma Moss and her daughter Laurie, they all join in expressing their hopes and giving thanks for their blessings.

Intermission

MUSIC OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN

CANDIDE

    Overture - Orchestra

    I Am Easily Assimilated - Catherine Cook, Thomas Glenn, and Eugene Brancoveanu

Various misadventures have led Candide and his beloved Cunegonde to the Spanish city of Cadiz, accompanied and befriended by “The Old Lady,” a hardy soul (claiming to be the daughter of a Polish pope) who has survived numerous disasters.  Short of funds, she attempts to sell her charms to some Spanish “Dons” as she explains the secret of her endurance.
 

WONDERFUL TOWN       

    A Little Bit in Love - Sylvia McNair

Wonderful Town, which premiered on Broadway in 1953, tells of two sisters from Ohio who come to New York in search of love and fortune. Eileen meets Frank, a local Walgreen's manager, who develops a crush on her, giving her free lunches and making her feel "A Little Bit in Love."
 

MASS

    A Simple Song - Eugene Brancoveanu

Bernstein’s Mass, written at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy, premiered during the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971. Based in part on the Roman Catholic liturgy, it includes additional texts (like the one heard here) by Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz, composer of such musicals as Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked.
 

ON THE TOWN

    “New York, New York” - Thomas Glenn, Eugene Brancoveanu, Kenneth Kellogg

    Three Dance Episodes - Orchestra

On the Town, which premiered on Broadway in 1944, is a musical-comedy adaptation of Bernstein’s ballet Fancy Free, produced on Broadway earlier that same year, with choreography by Jerome Robbins. The show concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City.
 

A QUIET PLACE (TROUBLE IN TAHITI)

    What a Movie! - Sylvia McNair

Dina, a suburban housewife, tries to forget her troubled marriage to Sam by taking in a matinee of a movie called “Trouble in Tahiti,” and she tells all about it in this remarkable aria, sometimes often called “Island Magic.”

WEST SIDE STORY

    Tonight  - Tamara Wapinsky, Catherine Cook, Thomas Glenn, Eugene Brancoveanu, Kenneth Kellogg

In this masterpiece of ensemble writing, several scenes combine as gang enemies Riff and Bernardo anticipate their “rumble” (turf fight), while Anita looks forward to a steamy rendezvous with Bernardo afterward.  Meanwhile the starry-eyed lovers Tony and Maria eagerly await another chance to meet.