City Choir Singers Help Present Bernstein’s MASS Sept. 4 and 5
Five City Choir singers will be a part of special free performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “MASS” on September 4th and 5th at 7:00 pm at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. A “response to the defunding of the National Endowment of the Arts, and the overhaul of the Kennedy Center,” the production is an “affirmation of the spirit that gave life to the Kennedy Center.”
The premiere of this work – properly titled “MASS: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers” – inaugurated the brand-new John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in September 1971. Fifty-five years later, IN Series Opera, Georgetown Chorale, Sam Bonds Chorale, CityDance DC, and Studio A Dance Academy jointly present this production, entitled “Bernstein: MASS – This Shall Be Our Reply.”
As its title suggests, MASS involves many performing forces – orchestra, elegant dancers, vocal soloists including the Celebrant of the Mass, a children’s chorus, a “street chorus” of professional singers, and an adult choir of 27 volunteer singers, drawn from ten local choruses. The City Choir contingent includes sopranos Karen Garlick and Laura Kim and tenors John Clewett, David Flaxman and Jim “Hutch” Hutchinson. Georgetown Chorale Artistic Director Heather Adelsberger – the City Choir’s Keyboard Artist – will conduct the performances.
John Clewett (TCCW Tenor), Laura Kim (TCCW Soprano), Heather Adelsberger (TCCW Keyboard Artist), Karen Garlick (TCCW Soprano), David Flaxman (TCCW Tenor) and Jim “Hutch” Hutchinson (TCCW Tenor) at rehearsal for Bernstein’s MASS.
Several City Choir singers – including Artistic Director Erin Freeman – also sang in the adult choir for three September 2022 performances of MASS at the Kennedy Center in honor of its fiftieth anniversary, delayed a year by the pandemic. A review of that production, with some great photos, is here. [https://operagene.com/new-blog/2022/9/20/the-importance-of-bernsteins-mass-and-the-arts-and-the-kennedy-center]
MASS exuberantly mixes the beauty of “A Simple Song” and the “Almighty Father” chorale with moments of chaos and wild syncopation (reminiscent of West Side Story if you squint), and lots more. As the 2022 review said, “vocal and musical styles switched often and easily among tonal and atonal classical music, rock, jazz, blues, and Broadway …. Words were in Latin, Hebrew, and English. There was gentle, soulful singing … [and] twelve-tone clashes …, music to support the liturgical procession and music to support … existential angst.”
Its words range from the liturgy of the Roman Mass to passages in English raising doubts about religion (and government). Initial reactions to MASS were mixed, but it has come to be a celebrated work worldwide. In a 1971 program note, Bernstein said he viewed the work ultimately as a “reaffirmation of faith,” and in 2000, at the request of Pope John Paul II, it was even performed at the Vatican, before an audience of bishops.
More information is available at www.mass2026.com. General admission at the door is free, but donations and the advance purchase of reserved seats are encouraged to help defray expenses.
We hope you can come experience it all for yourself – you’ll find it quite a remarkable evening!
MASS: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers
Friday, September 4 at 7:00 pm, and Saturday, September 5 at 7:00 pm
Mount Vernon Square United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001
