Leonard Bernstein: Mass At The Vatican City

Overview

Timeless traditions and contemporary anxieties clash musically and theatrically in Leonard Bernstein's powerful but rather neglected "Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers," The dancers are omitted in this semi-staged performance, produced for the Vatican's Jubilee 2000 celebration, but the show's eclectic musical brilliance, its adept mingling and clash of musical styles, its contrasts of hope and anxiety, faith and unbelief, ancient serenity and modern dissatisfaction are all brilliantly conveyed. More than 30 years after its premiere, for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Mass still has the impact of this morning's newspaper headlines.

Cast

Coro di Voci Bianche

Chorus

Coro del Conservatorio di S. Cecilia

Chorus

Douglass Webster

Celebrant

Yvonne Gonzales

Charis Fliermans

Jan Brockman

Jane Horvath

Susan Ancheta

Lori Rivera

Anika Noni Rose