Leonard Bernstein
»Mass« - a Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers.
Texts after the Roman »Mass«.
Additional texts by Stephen Schwartz and Leonard Bernstein.
Cologne première of the complete version (half-scenic version)
Im Rahmen von »ACHT BRÜCKEN│Musik für Köln 2016«
- Jubilant Sykes Baritone (Celebrant)
- Street Chorus
- Chor des Bach-Vereins Köln
- Philharmonischer Chor der Stadt Bonn
- Jugendprojektchor mit Schülerinnen und Schülern der Region Köln-Bonn
- Matt Herskowitz Trio New York
- Martin Füg production
- Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
- Thomas Neuhoff Conductor
A Roman Catholic mass written by a Jewish composer? Merely the sub-title of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” – “theatre piece for singers, players and dancers” – raises doubts. And what you can experience is a spectacle between cult and show, between high and pop culture. Quite a bit gets out of control at the religious service presented. In the mass texts, which are treated freely, words of disorientation, uncertainty and doubt are mixed in, as well as criticism typical for the protest movement of the 1960s. “At the climax of Communion, all ceremony breaks down and the Mass is shattered. It then remains for each individual on the stage to find a new seed of faith within himself,” Bernstein noted about his masterpiece, which premiered in Washington in 1971, a work that is both impressive and controversial. “‘Mass’ challenges us to think about faith, humanity, war and responsibility … what could be more relevant today?” the conductor Marin Alsop has written about the work of her mentor Leonard Bernstein.
