FULL MASS (Bernstein) Brisbane 1986 Jonathon Welch
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Mass
- Composer: Bernstein Leonard
- Libretto: Leonard Bernstein , Stephen Schwartz
- Venue & Opera Company: Concert Hall of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, Australia
- Recorded: April 11,1986
- Type: Concert Semi-staged
- Singers: Jonathon Welch
- Conductor: Roy Wales
- Orchestra: Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra
- Chorus: Brisbane Chorale, Conservatorium Singers
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Format: Unknown
- Quality Video: 2 Audio:2
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Mass (formally: MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers) is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The production used costume designs by Frank Thompson. The performance was part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Mass premiered in Europe in 1973, with John Mauceri conducting the Yale Symphony Orchestra in Vienna.
The work is based on the Tridentine Mass of the Catholic Church. The liturgical passages are sung mostly in Latin, though the “Sanctus” includes portions in Hebrew. Mass also includes additional texts in English written by Bernstein, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz, and Paul Simon (who wrote the first quatrain of the trope “Half of the People”). The work is intended to be staged theatrically, but it has also been performed in a standard concert setting.
Initial critical reception, including a review in The New York Times, was largely negative, but the Columbia Records recording of the work enjoyed excellent sales.
Quoted from Wikipedia