Lagrime di San Pietro

Orlando di Lasso / Composer

Los Angeles Master Chorale Grant Gershon / Artistic Director

Grant Gershon / Conductor Peter Sellars / Director James F. Ingalls / Lighting Designer Danielle Domingue / Costume Designer Pamela Salling / Stage Manager

Sunday Evening, January 20, 2019 at 7:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor

25th Performance of the 140th Annual Season 140th Annual Choral Union Series Choral Music Series This evening’s performance is supported by Carl and Charlene Herstein. Media partnership provided by WGTE 91.3 FM. Special thanks to Matthew Ozawa for his participation in events surrounding this evening’s performance. Special thanks to Tom Thompson of Tom Thompson Flowers, Ann Arbor, for his generous contribution of lobby floral art for this evening’s performance. Lagrime di San Pietro appears by arrangement with David Lieberman Artists’ Representatives. In consideration for the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance. The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. PROGRAM

Orlando di Lasso Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of St. Peter)

I. Il Magnanimo Pietro (When the generous Peter) II. Ma gli archi (The bows, however) III. Tre volte haveva (Three times already) IV. Qual a l’incontro (No one should boast) V. Giovane donna (Never did a young lady) VI. Cosi talhor (As it happens) VII. Ogni occhio del Signor (The eyes of the Lord) VIII. Nessun fedel trovai (I found none faithful) IX. Chi ad una ad una (If one could retell one by one) X. Come falda di neve (Like a snowbank) XI. E non fu il pianot suo (And his crying) XII. Quel volto (That face) XIII. Veduto il miser (Realizing that he felt) XIV. E vago d’incontrar (wishing to find someone) XV. Vattene vita va (Go, life, go away) XVI. O vita troppo rea (O life, too guilty) XVII. A quanti giàfelici (To how many) XVIII. Non trovava mia fé (My faith would have not failed) XIX. Queste opre e più (These events) XX. Negando il mio Signor (By denying my Lord) XXI. Vide homo (See, O man)

This evening’s performance runs approximately 80 minutes in duration and will be performed without intermission.

3 LAGRIME DI SAN PIETRO (TEARS OF ST. PETER) (1594)

Orlando di Lasso Born January 1, 1532 in Mons, Habsburg Netherlands (now Belgium) Died June 14, 1594 in Munich, Germany

UMS premiere: This piece has never been performed on a UMS concert.

Snapshots of History…In 1594: · Henry IV enters his capital of Paris for the first time · Tulip bulbs planted by Carolus Clusius in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden in Holland flower for the first time · The city of Groningen submits to Dutch troops, bringing the whole northern Netherlands under the Dutch Republic

A Saint’s Remorse: Lasso’s High while still undertaking trips to Vienna Renaissance Masterpiece and Italy and picking up on the latest What’s the correct way to refer to one developments in musical style. of the most extraordinary musical Such, in brief outline, is the life story minds in history: Orlande/Orlando/ of Lasso. (Let’s simplify and stick to Roland de Lassus/di Lasso? There’s the Italian spelling, the one used on a Franco-Flemish form and an the title page of many of his published Italianized one; sometimes the two works, including the first edition of get mixed together. There’s even a Lagrime di San Pietro.) During his Latin option intended to standardize long, productive years in Munich, he the situation. The very profusion of became an international celebrity. variants points to the internationalism Lasso was born at just the right time and cross-pollination across borders to benefit from the new technology that marked the era of the High of printing, which disseminated his Renaissance in Europe. prolific output at an astonishing rate This was a time in which a young (about two publications of his music musician born in the Netherlandish a year). Hopeful young composers part of the Habsburg Empire (in traveled far and wide to learn from him what is nowadays Belgium) could — the Gabrielis from Venice may have find himself posted to positions at been among them — and Lasso was major courts and churches in Italy honored by emperor and pope alike. while still in his early 20s, travel back “What you have is the iTunes of north for a brief spell (possibly in the High Renaissance: Everyone is France and even England), and then hearing each other’s releases, in be lured at around age 26 to join the different languages, some in pirate ambitious court of an aristocrat in versions, and mixing them together,” Munich (the Duke of Bavaria), where says director Peter Sellars. “All these he happily settled for almost four versions of Orlando’s name evolved decades until his death in 1594 — because he was active in different

4 music centers. It feels like today, when “embodied spirituality: the muscle of there isn’t a single way music has to spiritual energy and striving against happen, and everyone is listening to pain to achieve self-transformation.” everyone else.” “The genesis of this project began Lasso was particularly revered for in 2011 when Peter and I were working the variety and extent of his output together on Vivaldi’s Griselda at the across vocal genres (curiously, Santa Fe Opera,” recalls Los Angeles instrumental music is missing from his Master Chorale’s Kiki & David Gindler vast extant oeuvre), as well as for the Artistic Director Grant Gershon. “I’ve depth of his knowledge of the grand always been especially moved by the tradition of Renaissance polyphony way that he guides singers to connect that was just about to reach its end. In their deepest and most complex the century that dawned a few years emotions to the music.” Mr. Gershon after Lasso’s death, the new genre of imagined the potential that could be opera would flourish, and its champion tapped by having Mr. Sellars stage an Claudio Monteverdi would pioneer entirely a cappella work, “where there a dramatically different musical is no buffer between the singers and language — a language from which the audience. The pure sound of the modern Western music emerged. human voice would convey all of the Another contemporary artist, the structure, the colors, the textures, and French poet Pierre de Ronsard raved: the feeling of a major work.” “The more-than-divine Orlando… And Lagrime di San Pietro presented like a bee has sipped all the most “the perfect piece” with which to try beautiful flowers of the ancients out this approach — but also a set and moreover seems alone to have of formidable challenges. Explains stolen the harmony of the heavens to Gershon: “The problem that the piece delight us with it on earth, surpassing has had over the years is that this the ancients and making himself the highly emotional, even anguished unique wonder of our time.” music has historically been performed in a very buttoned down, extremely Visualizing the Polyphony reverential style. (Frankly, there are Into his swan song, Lagrime di San several perfectly lovely recordings of Pietro, Lasso distilled all of that the work that are also unbelievably wisdom, experience, and complexity. dull.) Peter and I felt that the truth “Polyphony of this kind of depth and of this music could be unlocked with detail is totally sculptural,” observes movement and with an intense focus Mr. Sellars. He notes that Lagrime was on the poetry.” composed only 30 years after the Lasso’s creation of this complex death of another towering artist of the vocal cycle clearly stands apart within High Renaissance: Michelangelo. his oeuvre with regard to chronology “You also get this muscular intensity and purpose. Widely admired and in Lasso’s writing that is reminiscent imitated by his contemporaries, that of this expressive language we know oeuvre encompasses on one side so well, visually, from Michelangelo.” sacred works that are both traditional Both artists convey visions of an (masses) and wildly original (the

5 celebrated motet cycle Prophetiae incidentally, the humanist Petrarch Sibyllarum) and, on the other, heartily devoted his art to secular and profane compositions in multiple sacred causes — his poetry praising languages. the Virgin Mary inspired Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro comes at the contemporary Palestrina to write a very end — he completed the score famous set of madrigale spirituali.) with a dedication to Pope Clement VIII Tansillo, curiously, had been on the on May 24, 1594, and died in Munich Vatican’s Forbidden Index. His Lagrime on June 14. In that dedication, Lasso obtained an official pardon from the remarks that “these tears of Saint Pope. Although Tansillo died before Peter…have been clothed in harmony managing to complete the epic, by me for my personal devotion in my the published Lagrime is a lengthy burdensome old age.” collection of eight-line stanzas in ottava rima (the rhyming scheme A Special Kind of Madrigal ABABABCC), from which Lasso chose In terms of genre, the numbers 20 for his madrigal cycle. comprising Lagrime are classified not as motets but as madrigale Peter’s Threefold Denial spirituali — a term that straddles The dramatic content centers around the usual distinction between vocal a topic that will be familiar to anyone compositions for the sacred (motet) who knows J.S. Bach’s Passions, and secular (madrigal) spheres. where it occurs as just one episode Motets, composed in Latin, were within the long sequence of the suitable for use in liturgy; madrigals Passion story (though it inspires one set words in the vernacular language, of the most moving moments in the frequently involving erotic and St. Matthew Passion — the alto aria pastoral topics, and were intended “Erbarme dich”). It’s the topic of for private courtly or academic several masterpieces in painting as gatherings (much as the first, court- well, by such artists as Rembrandt produced operas) or, when the topic and Caravaggio. The Gospel narratives related to a public figure or occasion, of the Passion recount the Apostle for ceremonial contexts. Yet while Peter’s fearful reaction to the taking advantage of the innovations terror of the night of Jesus’ arrest. (and lack of restrictions) of the Three times he denies knowing the secular madrigal, “spiritual madrigals” accused — exactly as Jesus during were devoted to religious topics. the Last Supper had predicted Peter They were not suitable for liturgical would do, “this very night, before the usage, however — by definition, such rooster crows.” This is of course the madrigals set vernacular rather than very Peter who would be claimed as Latin texts. the founder of the Catholic Church, For Lagrime, Lasso found his text the first in its succession of popes. in a devotional epic by the Italian Tansillo’s poem unfolds as a highly Renaissance poet Luigi Tansillo (1510­ wrought, emotional sequence of self- –1568), who came out of the great accusation and remorse for what Petrarchan tradition. (Like Lasso, cannot be undone, as the elderly Peter

6 attempts to come to terms with his have to understand the musicological anguish. The imagery is elaborate, jargon to hear the remarkably austere its references to mirrors and impact of the final number. reflections revealing a characteristic Structurally, Lagrime also reflects Renaissance preoccupation, and the kind of theological numerological boldly figures what transpires in the symbolism that is so all-pervasive in central image — the communication Bach’s masterpieces. Each stanza through Jesus’ transfixing glance is written for seven separate parts. on the Cross — to the unspoken (Some performers opt to complement knowledge shared by lovers. the voices with instruments, citing The cycle Lasso fashions from this performance practice of Lasso’s era.) resembles a psychodrama, a kind of Seven is the number of perfection psychological Stations of the Cross and creation, but also a number with a Peter endures internally: the eternally dark side, as in the Seven Deadly Sins. present moment of betrayal and the Three is the number of the Trinity, recollections of a man approaching but it, too, has a negative shadow in and longing for death intersect as he the three times Peter denies Jesus. seeks reconciliation, realizing he can Lasso’s overall cycle comprises 3 x 7 never forgive himself but can rely only stanzas (yielding 168 lines of poetry, a on divine grace. Lasso gives Peter — sum evenly divisible by 7). and us — no easy answers, and no easy way out. He concludes the cycle Pared Down Simplicity of 20 stanzas from Tansillo’s poem For this staging, Mr. Gershon and with a 21st number [madrigal] from Mr. Sellars decided to perform with another source: a Latin motet by the three singers on a part resulting in 13th-century French poet Philippe de an ensemble of 21. “We wanted the Greve representing the final word from size of the ensemble to balance the Jesus himself (“Vide Homo, quae pro need for clarity and transparency of te patior” [See, O man, how I suffer the individual voices with the idea of for you]). Here Jesus only reaffirms this also being a community coming what has been tormenting Peter: together,” explains Mr. Gershon. the knowledge that his betrayal has “We also talked about keeping a real caused more “inner agony” for the simplicity to the whole look and feel, savior than his outward suffering on without any set or props or extra the cross. Even the repetitive rhyme performers. Peter’s work with the scheme for all eight lines enhances singers would be complemented by the sense of recursive entrapment. Jim Ingalls’s lighting and some chairs Through his overall tonal scheme onstage; the wardrobe is basically using the old church (i.e., Gregorian) shades of grey — clothes that look modes, Lasso further underscores like they could come out of anyone’s the sense of irresolution by omitting closet.” some of those eight modes as he “This is music that has a real progressively cycles through them; austerity,” Mr. Gershon adds. “Lagrime for this final motet he shifts to a mode is old composer’s music, like the outside the normal system. You don’t late Beethoven string quartets or

7 the ‘Adagio’ from Mahler’s Ninth or the drama forward” — drama Tenth. Things are stripped away, until according to the ancient Greek there is nothing extraneous: there understanding of tragedy, says Mr. are very few melismatic passages.” Sellars, “which I could also call an For Mr. Sellars, Lagrime is composed African understanding, where an “with an incredible concision, with individual crisis is also a crisis of the sheer essence and focus. There’s community. Even though we hear one a harmonic density but at the same man’s thoughts, it is the community time it’s stated as simply as possible, that absorbs them and has to take without a single extra note.” responsibility: a collective takes on We know that in his final years this weight of longing and hope.” Lasso had been ailing, seeking relief for a condition described as Inner Dialogue, Light, and Darkness “melancholy,” and he even dedicated That interplay between the individual one set of his madrigals to the court and the collective has suggested physician who took care of him. “At thrilling possibilities for staging. this point in his life,” according to Mr. For Mr. Sellars, “the voice is not Sellars, Lasso “does not need to prove something disembodied but is part anything to anyone. He is [composing of the body which is testifying. The Lagrime] because this is something sheer physical intensity of the singing he has to get off his chest to purify joins with this collective dawning his own soul as he leaves the world. through the inner dialogue of the It’s a private, devotional act of writing, composition, as these voices have but these thoughts are now shared by their moments of revelation.” a community — by people singing to And beyond the Stravinsky, Lagrime and for each other.” can be viewed as a continuation of While the Lagrime project Mr. Sellars’ engagements with the represents his first time staging an Passion story, from his acclaimed entirely a cappella performance, Mr. stagings of the classic Bach Passions Sellars considers it a continuation to his work on contemporary variants of themes he has been recently by John Adams (The Gospel According revisiting in his collaborations with to the Other Mary, in whose world conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen premiere the Master Chorale and Mr. involving choral works by Igor Gershon took part) and Kaija Saariaho Stravinsky. For the conclusion of (La Passion de Simone, recently Mr. Salonen’s tenure with the Los reintroduced in a chamber version as Angeles Philharmonic in 2009, Mr. part of the 2016 Ojai Festival). Sellars staged Stravinsky’s Symphony “Lagrime has one foot in this world of Psalms and Oedipus Rex as a and one foot in the next world — it’s double-bill, and the conductor and music written by somebody who is director reprised it in February 2018 in pain,” says Mr. Sellars. “It shares to crown a Stravinsky series with the the giant discovery of lighting in Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Renaissance painting that was As in the Stravinsky double- echoed in poetry and music: this bill, in Lagrime the chorus “carries understanding that light and darkness

8 are deeply intertwined in God’s experiencing extreme shame and creation and are necessary for each regret, but also some possibility of other. Taken together, they create benediction. We all came away from chiaroscuro. That’s how we perceive the initial performances of this work depth.” convinced of two things: that Lagrime Through all of its pain, says Mr. di San Pietro is one of the towering Sellars, the challenge in Lagrime “is masterpieces of Western music, and directed towards oneself. Instead of that this project represents for each challenging the world, you challenge of us some of the most important work yourself — that is the real meaning of that we have ever embarked upon. jihad in Islam, the war within yourself. This is a piece that people need to In an analogous act to Michelangelo’s hear, to see, and to experience.” and Rembrandt’s self-portraits, Lasso has created this host of recording Program note by Thomas May, program angels who can detail the fluctuations annotator for the Los Angeles Master and razor-edge refinements of his Chorale. Thomas May writes about art, his moral quandaries, and lifelong the arts and blog at memeteria.com. regret for failed moments. That Reprinted with permission. crystal-clear, relentlessly honest moment is a crisis known to every human being on earth. In the case of Lasso, he can’t forgive himself, but the music is suffused with a divine compassion and illumination that reaches the very heart of hell.” The result of this powerful collaboration turned out to make a milestone in the history of the Master Chorale. “What neither Peter nor I could fully anticipate was the overwhelming emotional vulnerability that our singers would bring to this project,” says Mr. Gershon. “Ostensibly this piece is about Peter the Apostle and his lifelong sense of remorse over denying Jesus before the crucifixion. What we came to realize as we all worked together is that Lasso was delving into much more universal themes surrounding growing old, losing the things and people that we care about,

Artwork (next spread): El Greco’s The Penitent Saint Peter (ca. 1590–95).

9 10 11 OUR SWEET HEREAFTER by Doyle Armbrust

Do you ever have this experience, night of their lives, and of course one where a companion asks you what guy who would deny ever knowing his restaurants or books or music you love spiritual captain. Peter just drew the most, and your brain instantly empties short straw on his role in this play. The with the velocity of an airplane toilet? tripartite deed itself is not really the The one artist who reliably clings to cause of his pain. It’s knowing that he my brain, when these discussions expedited the death of a friend, even involve film, is the Canadian director though that death was preordained. Atom Egoyan. It is likely because I He is left behind, and this is gutting. first encountered his work during Wait, this is a program essay…what my undergrad years, when my brain are we talking about, exactly? could still retain information, but in Right. What you’re here to see is any case, his 1997 movie The Sweet one of the most luminous musical Hereafter is one of those under-the- entries from the High Renaissance, radar (despite winning the Grand Prix Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San at Cannes) gems that is my go-to in Pietro, or “Tears of Saint Peter.” I’m these scenarios. not sure about you, but when I hear To tell you that the story involves a music of this era — and specifically school bus careening off an icy road a cappella numbers — it taps into and into a frigid lake — an accident something that feels primordial, or at in which many children die — is the very least, elemental. Even though definitively not a spoiler. And you this piece would never have been should certainly seek this one out allowed as part of a liturgy, it is sacred, once you get home, in part because and so was required to work within Ian Holm gives one of the most certain constraints. No frivolous, extraordinarily nuanced performances virtuosic singing allowed. But as of any actor, ever. any of you who have encountered The tragedy in this story is not a painting by Mondrian or a play by the accident. It is the catastrophe of Beckett know, it is often the existence being left behind. of severe constraints that produce The dead, though desperately some of the most elevating or missed, are nevertheless gone and thought-provoking art. not participating in our anguish. Much has been written about how Don’t tell the Vatican, but I think Orlando di Lasso strips his Lagrime this is where Saint Peter’s remorse score down to only the essential lives, after betraying Jesus not once elements, with nary an extraneous but thrice. Let’s be honest, all of note to be found. To my mind, this these scenes were inevitably (see: is at best hyperbolic and at worst prophecies) going to include one idiotic, because who is to say what guy who rats out The Son of Man’s notes are superfluous? But I get the location for a bag of silver, some guys sentiment. What you’ll inevitably falling asleep on the most climactic experience today is music in which

12 the text is never obscured, and reckon with our regret long before we from which any vocal flourishes are reach the end. A possibility to know completely absent. Notice how the that a fault may never be forgiven, composer captures the inescapability but that by taking ownership of it, we of regret, and the unique tone of each might not cower under its shadow for segment’s text. Leaning primarily on the rest of our lives. harmony and rhythm alone, how does Another example of the many- he inhabit this psychological labyrinth faceted nature of this story — which is Saint Peter finds himself trapped in? perhaps universal — arrives with the A few notable examples stand 10th movement, “Come falda di neve.” out to me. In the second movement, Both the text and the music pivot to “Ma gli archi,” we get the double- some degree here. There is a glimmer down. Not only is Peter’s guilt going of sunshine, literally, as Peter’s to haunt him — no lesser force than fear “like a snowflake” melts in the God will keep this wound flowing springtime of his Master’s mercy. It’s — as though newly cut open, each not total absolution that is given, but day FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. It is a kind of beautiful balance offered in a fantastic allegory illuminating the which the betrayal lives in a space of fallacy of “closure.” There are some sadness, rather than self-hatred. The moments that we will never escape, relief is massive, even if the best-case no matter how much therapy or scenario is lifelong heartache. apologizing or pharmaceuticals we Do you hear the turn in the attempt. Again, the betrayal of Jesus music? There is a compassion in the was a dire mistake attributed to the harmonies of the ninth movement, more or less preordained human “Chi ad uno raconntár potesse,” trait of self-preservation. Peter’s but something lifts in “Come falda life was in danger, and his animal di neve.” Using only harmony and instincts kicked in to gear. The real a gentler approach to the text, we catastrophe, even after his friend rises — and Peter — realize that not all is from the dead, is having to wake up lost. There may just be a reason to each morning to that regret. To be left persevere. behind, even as the world soldiers on. One reason I love The Sweet It is intriguing that Lasso penned Hereafter so devotedly is that it is this opus at the very end of his life. patient, and doesn’t hinge on any one I don’t think that it’s projecting dramatic reveal. Lasso’s masterpiece irresponsibly to say that if this was has, until its final movement, mined his swan song, Orlando was grappling the poetry of Luigi Tansillo. But in with a deep regret as he neared the magnificent outro, the composer the end. Why not a song of thanks, exercises his editorial prerogative by or a celebration of God’s creation writing a motet — a distinctly sacred for his final number? Perhaps he’s form — and it is here that I believe the generously offering us the chance to music becomes universal, and not just

13 about the plight of Saint Peter. It is an invitation to all of us to a reprieve, if not absolution. Christ may have had nails brutally hammered into his hands and feet, but this was a pain measured in hours. It pales in comparison to years of self-condemnation. The music that we are left with is so spare. It’s as if Lasso desires for us to lean forward: this is the moment, that more than any other, we should ponder. It feels like a rendezvous with the divine, whatever that means to you. Whether your transgression caused a bus to plunge beneath the ice, or your lot was to fulfill a prophecy…or perhaps something altogether less sensational: hope is still within the grasp of those left behind.

Doyle Armbrust is a Chicago-based violist and member of the Spektral Quartet. He is a contributing writer for WQXR’s Q2 Music, Crain’s Chicago Business, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and formerly, Time Out Chicago.

14 ARTISTS

The Los Angeles Master Chorale is widely write and perform their own songs, and an recognized as the country’s leading expansive Oratorio Project for high school professional choir and one of Southern students. The Master Chorale presents an California’s most vibrant cultural treasures. annual High School Choir Festival bringing Hailed for its powerful performances, teenagers from around the Southland to technical precision, and artistic daring, perform in Walt Disney Concert Hall. The the Master Chorale is led by artistic Festival celebrates its 30th year in 2019. director Grant Gershon and Jean Davidson, In June 2016, the Master Chorale hosted president and CEO. Grammy-winning Big Sing L.A., bringing people of all ages composer Eric Whitacre currently serves and abilities to Grand Park for a communal as the ensemble’s Swan Family Artist- singing event. In July 2018 the Master in-Residence. Created by legendary Chorale presented Big Sing California, the conductor Roger Wagner in 1964, it is a largest group singing event in state history, founding resident company of The Music encompassing a concert in Disney Hall Center and choir-in-residence at Walt that was broadcast live to venues in five Disney Concert Hall. Chorister positions other cities in California and livestreamed are highly sought after, and the fully worldwide online. professional choir is a diverse and vocally dynamic group showcasing the many Hailed for his adventurous and bold artistic voices of Los Angeles. leadership and for eliciting technically Presenting its own concert series each precise and expressive performances from season, the Los Angeles Master Chorale musicians, Grant Gershon (conductor) is performs choral music from the earliest currently in his 17th season as the Kiki writings to contemporary compositions & David Gindler Artistic Director of the striking a balance between innovation and Los Angeles Master Chorale. The Los tradition. It also frequently performs with Angeles Times has said the Master Chorale the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney “has become the most exciting chorus Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. The Master in the country under Grant Gershon,” a Chorale has been awarded three ASCAP/ reflection on both his programming and Chorus America Awards for Adventurous performances. Programming as well as Chorus America’s During his tenure, Mr. Gershon has prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral led more than 200 performances at Excellence. In 2017 it was inducted into the Walt Disney Concert Hall. A fervent American Classical Music Hall of Fame. The champion of new music, he has led world- Master Chorale has an esteemed recording premiere performances of major works catalog and has appeared frequently on by composers including John Adams, film scores and soundtracks, most recently Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Lang, Louis Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Andriessen, Christopher Rouse, Steve Committed to community engagement Reich, Morten Lauridsen, Ricky Ian Gordon, and fostering music education in schools, Gabriela Lena Frank, Shawn Kirchner, Ellen the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Reid, and Chinary Ung. education programs include Voices Within Mr. Gershon is the resident conductor residencies that encourage students to of LA Opera. He made his acclaimed debut

15 with the company with La Traviata in 2009 Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de and has subsequently conducted Il Postino, Paris, and the Salzburg Festival. Madame Butterfly, Carmen, Florencia en He has collaborated on the creation of el Amazonas, Wonderful Town, The Tales many works with composer John Adams, of Hoffmann, and The Pearl Fishers. He including Nixon in China, The Death of conducted the West Coast premiere of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, A Philip Glass’s Satyagraha for LA Opera in Flowering Tree, and The Gospel According fall 2018. In November 2017 he conducted to the Other Mary. Inspired by the the world premiere of John Adams’s Girls of compositions of Kaija Saariaho, Mr. Sellars the Golden West, directed by Peter Sellars, has guided the creation of productions for San Francisco Opera with “rhythmic of her work that have expanded the buoyancy and vigor” (Classical Voice repertoire of modern opera. North America). In New York, Mr. Gershon Recent projects include an acclaimed has appeared at Carnegie Hall and at production of La Clemenza di Tito at the Trinity Wall Street, as well as on the Great 2017 Salzburg Festival, a concert staging Performers series at Lincoln Center. Other of The Cunning Little Vixen with the Berlin major appearances include performances Philharmonic Orchestra, and the premiere at the Ravinia, Aspen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, of the latest Adams/Sellars collaboration, Salzburg, and Vienna festivals. He has Girls of the Golden West, at San Francisco worked closely with numerous conductors, Opera. This summer, Mr. Sellars will create including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, a new production of Doctor Atomic for the James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Santa Fe Opera. Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, and his Mr. Sellars has led several major arts mentor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. festivals, including the 1990 and 1993 Los His discography includes two Grammy- Angeles Festivals and the 2002 Adelaide nominated recordings: Sweeney Todd Arts Festival. In 2006 he was artistic (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) director of New Crowned Hope, a month- and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony long festival in Vienna for which he invited Classical); six commercial recordings artists from diverse cultural backgrounds with the Master Chorale; and two live to create new work in the fields of music, performance albums. He has also led theater, dance, film, the visual arts, and the Master Chorale in performances for architecture for the celebration of Mozart’s several major motion pictures’ soundtracks 250th birth anniversary. He served as the including Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the music director of the 2016 Ojai Music request of composer John Williams. Festival. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Peter Sellars (director) has gained department of World Arts and Cultures at international renown for his UCLA, a resident curator of the Telluride groundbreaking and transformative Film Festival, and was a mentor for the interpretations of artistic masterpieces Rolex Arts Initiative. Mr. Sellars is the and for collaborative projects with an recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, extraordinary range of creative artists. He the Erasmus Prize for contributions to has staged operas at companies including European culture, the Gish Prize, and is a the Canadian Opera Company, Dutch member of the American Academy of Arts National Opera, English National Opera, and Sciences. In 2014 he was awarded the

16 prestigious Polar Music Prize, and named She is treasured for her creativity and Musical America’s 2014 “Artist of the Year.” leadership skills in theatrical costume production. Since 2005, she has worked James F. Ingalls (lighting designer) made on staff and independently with fashion, his Los Angeles Master Chorale debut with theaters, and opera companies including Lagrime. His other work in Los Angeles FIDM, Los Angeles Opera, Kirk Douglas includes The Beauty Queen of Leenane Theater, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Perm and The Price and A Parallelogram (Mark Opera and Ballet Company, Teatro Real Taper Forum); The Gospel According Madrid, English National Opera, and Music to the Other Mary, Cantata Criolla, Academy of the West. She was previously Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms, and assistant head of wardrobe with Los El Niño (Los Angeles Philharmonic); Angeles Opera. Carmen de Lavallade’s As I Remember She finds great joy in collaborating with It (Wallis Annenberg Center); and Tribu, director Peter Sellars including designing choreographed by Melanie Rios Glaser Lagrime di San Pietro with Los Angeles (RedCat). Recent designs for dance Master Chorale and bringing life to other include Concertiana, Half Life, and The projects including Desdemona at CAP Beauty in Gray (Paul Taylor’s American UCLA, The Indian Queen, and The Gospel Modern Dance); Giselle (Finnish National According to the Other Mary on tour with Ballet); and George Balanchine’s The Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recently, Nutcracker (Miami City Ballet). Recent she was assistant costume designer for design for opera includes the world Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound of Bernstein’s Mass and supervised Remains (Dutch National Opera and Paris Allegiance, a Broadway musical production Opera/Garnier) and La Clemenza di Tito with East West Players and the Japanese (Salzburg Festival), both directed by Peter American Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Sellars. Recent theater work includes Waiting for Godot, Sive, and King of the UMS welcomes the Los Angeles Master Castle, all directed by Garry Hynes (Druid Chorale and conductor Grant Gershon as Theatre/Galway). He often collaborates they make their UMS debuts this evening. with The Wooden Floor dancers in Santa Ana, California.

Danielle Domingue Sumi (costume designer) is native to New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Los Angeles-based apparel artist and art psychotherapist. Her artistic expression is inspired by spirituality and humility with elements of multi-cultural diversity and social justice. She is committed to promoting social well- being through expressive arts including increased understanding, recognition, and response to multi-ethnic heritage.

17 18 LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE Grant Gershon / Artistic Director

Canto Primo Tenor Secondo Claire Fedoruk Jon Lee Keenan Elissa Johnston Brett McDermid Anna Schubert Shuo Zhai

Canto Secondo Basso Hayden Eberhart Scott Graff Bethanie Peregrine James Hayden Andrea Zomorodian Chung Uk Lee

Alto Primo The singers of the Los Angeles Master Shawn Kirchner Chorale are represented by the Niké St. Clair American Guild of Musical Artists, Michele Hemmings AFL-CIO.

Alto Secondo Callista Hoffman-Campbell Los Angeles Master Chorale Michael Lichtenauer Touring Production Staff Adriana Manfredi Kevin Koelbl / Chief Production Officer Susie McDermid / Senior Production Tenor Primo Manager Matthew Brown Robert Heath / Company Manager Luc Kleiner David Rakita / Production Assistant Adrien Redford

The Los Angeles Master Chorale production of Lagrime di San Pietro is made possible with generous underwriting from the Lovelace Family Trust and is dedicated to the memory of Jon Lovelace in honor of the special friendship he shared with director Peter Sellars. The touring production is supported by Kiki and David Gindler, Philip A. Swan, Laney and Tom Techentin, Jerrie and Abbott Brown, Cindy and Gary Frischling, Marian H. and John Niles, Frederick J. Ruopp, and Eva and Marc Stern.

19 THIS EVENING'S VICTORS FOR UMS:

Carl and Charlene Herstein

Supporters of this evening’s performance of Lagrime di San Pietro.

MAY WE ALSO RECOMMEND...

2/16 Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and UMS Choral Union: Britten’s War Requiem 3/16 Benjamin Eric Owens and Lawrence Brownlee 4/12 The English Concert: Handel’s Semele

Tickets available at www.ums.org.

ON THE EDUCATION HORIZON...

1/26 You Can Dance: Camille A. Brown & Dancers (Ann Arbor Y, 400 W. Washington Street, 1:30 pm) Registration opens 45 minutes prior to the start of the event.

1/26 Post-Performance Artist Q&A: Camille A. Brown & Dancers (Power Center, post-performance) Must have a ticket to that evening’s performance by Camille A. Brown & Dancers to attend.

2/14 Master Class: Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor (Britton Recital Hall, Moore Building, 1100 Baits Drive, 7:30 pm)

Educational events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.