Musical Theatre Gala I Contents Welcome 1
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BROADWAY TO WEST END SAT 15 MAY 2021 CONCERT HALL, QPAC PROGRAM | MUSICAL THEATRE GALA I CONTENTS WELCOME 1 IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA 2 LISTENING GUIDE 4 ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES 10 SUPPORTING YOUR ORCHESTRA 24 MUSICIANS AND MANAGEMENT 26 II PROGRAM | MUSICAL THEATRE GALA WELCOME We play a huge variety of musical genres at Queensland Symphony Orchestra, so it's fortunate that many of us enjoy more than just classical music! My first ever encounter with theatre was in fact some Gilbert and Sullivan operettas when I was in primary school. There was so much to take in: the colourful costumes, the movement and drama, but for me it was the orchestra in the pit that captivated me - so much so that I totally forgot to concentrate on the words of the songs! I came away from these experiences totally confused as to what it was all about, but riding high on the fun, the melodies and rhythmic drive, and of course the incredible sound of an orchestra creating so many different sounds and colours. I have really enjoyed playing harp for a number of musicals over the course of my career. The harp is used extensively in today’s concert for its sparkling colour, its rhythmic punch, its agile accompaniment of the voice lines, and acting as the glue that combines all the orchestral forces. Joining the Orchestra on stage today are some incredible voices – Lorina Gore, Simon Gleeson, Nina Lippmann, and Hanlon Innocent. I am very much looking forward to today’s program, in particular the excerpt from Schönberg’s brilliant music for Les Misérables. Thank you for joining us once more in the Concert Hall, and we hope you enjoy our tribute to Musical Theatre. Jill Atkinson Principal Harp IN THIS CONCERT Conductor & Host Guy Noble Soloists Lorina Gore, soprano | Simon Gleeson, tenor Nina Lippmann, soprano | Hanlon Innocent, baritone PROGRAM BERNSTEIN Overture to Candide 5' 'Tonight' (Balcony Scene) from West Side Story 4' LLOYD-WEBBER Overture, 'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again', 12' and 'All I Ask of You' from The Phantom of the Opera MENKEN 'Out There' from The Hunchback of Notre Dame 4' ANDERSON-LOPEZ 'Let it Go' from Frozen 3' RODGERS 'The Carousel Waltz' and 'If I Loved You' from Carousel 14' ANDERSSON 'Anthem' and 'I Know Him So Well' from Chess 7' SCHÖNBERG 'Bring Him Home' from Les Misérables 3' SCHWARTZ 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked 6' Queensland Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the traditional custodians of Australia. We acknowledge the cultural diversity of Elders, both past and recent, and the significant contributions that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made to Queensland and Australia. To ensure an enjoyable concert experience for everyone, please remember to turn off your mobile phones and all other electronic devices. Please muffle coughs and refrain from talking during the performance. Presented in association with Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. Photos by Peter Wallis. 1 IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA PERCUSSION TIMPANI FRENCH HORN TRUMPET TROMBONE TUBA CLARINET BASSOON FLUTE OBOE KEYBOARD DOUBLE BASS VIOLIN 2 CELLO VIOLA CONDUCTOR WHO SITS WHERE Orchestras sit in sections based on types of instruments. There are four main sections in the symphony orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) and sometimes a keyboard section. STRINGS BRASS These instruments produce sound by bowing or Brass players create sound by vibrating their plucking stretched strings. lips. When this vibration is pushed through large First / Second Violin brass tubes, it can create significant noise. Viola French Horn Cello Trumpet Double Bass Trombone / Bass Trombone Harp Tuba WOODWIND PERCUSSION Wind instruments produce sound by being These instruments create sound by being blown into. struck or shaken. Some instruments just make Flute / Piccolo a sound; others play particular pitches. Clarinet / E-flat Clarinet / Bass Clarinet Timpani, Bass drum, Snare drum, Cymbals, Oboe / Cor Anglais Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Bassoon / Contrabassoon Tam-tam, Triangle, Sleigh Bells. KEYBOARD Keyboard instruments are played by pressing keys. Piano Celeste Keyboard 2 PROGRAM | MUSICAL THEATRE GALA WHO’S ON STAGE TODAY CONCERTMASTERS VIOLA PICCOLO TROMBONE Warwick Adeney Imants Larsens ~ Kate Lawson * Jason Redman ~ Yoko Okayasu >> Ashley Carter >> ASSOCIATE Charlotte Burbrook de Vere OBOE Huw Jones ~ BASS TROMBONE CONCERTMASTER Karen Gordon Alexa Murray Jason Luostarinen ^ Alan Smith Nicole Greentree VIOLIN 1 Bernard Hoey COR ANGLAIS TUBA Rebecca Seymour * Kirsten Hulin-Bobart Vivienne Brooke * Thomas Allely * Lynn Cole Jann Keir-Haantera CLARINET TIMPANI Ann Holtzapffel Graham Simpson Irit Silver ~ Tim Corkeron * Anne Horton Nicholas Tomkin Brian Catchlove >> Joan Shih PERCUSSION CELLO Kate Travers Brenda Sullivan Matthew Kinmont = David Montgomery ~ Jason Tong Kathryn Close + BASS CLARINET Josh DeMarchi >> Stephen Tooke Deborah Davis Nicholas Harmsen * Zach Brankovich Claire Tyrell Fraser Matthew Andre Duthoit BASSOON Brynley White Angus Wilson Matthew Jones David Mitchell >> Sonia Wilson Andrew Leask Evan Lewis HARP VIOLIN 2 Kaja Skorka Jill Atkinson * Craig Allister Young CONTRABASSOON Wayne Brennan ~ Claire Ramuscak * KEYBOARD / SYNTHESIZER Helen Travers ^ DOUBLE BASS Luke Volker ^ FRENCH HORN Lara Baker-Finch Phoebe Russell ~ Heidi Loveland ^ Malcolm Stewart ~ Katie Betts Dušan Walkowicz >> Nicholas Mooney + ORGAN Jane Burroughs Anne Buchanan Ian O’Brien * Andrej Kouznetsov ^ Faina Dobrenko Justin Bullock Vivienne Collier-Vickers Matthew Hesse Paul O’Brien Lauren Manuel Delia Kinmont Ken Poggioli Natalie Low FLUTE TRUMPET Tim Marchmont Alison Mitchell ~ Richard Madden = Nicholas Thin Hayley Radke >> Chris Hudson Harold Wilson Richard Fomison ~ Section Principal = Acting Section Principal >> Associate Principal + Acting Associate Principal * Principal ^ Acting Principal PROGRAM | MUSICAL THEATRE GALA 3 LISTENING GUIDE Overture from Candide Leonard Bernstein It’s not a hyperbole to overstate how busy Bernstein was. At the same time as writing West Side Story, Bernstein was simultaneously sketching music for another project, Candide. His split attention didn’t detract from the quality of his work though, and music he sketched for one project, often ended up in the other - One Hand, One Heart was originally intended for Candide. Conceived as a play with incidental music, adapted from the novella by Voltaire, Bernstein petitioned for the project to become a neo-Classical operetta. In contemporary opera circles, its three-month run was considered a runaway success, but in the world of Broadway, it was a dismal failure. Critics focussed their blame on the book, and spared Bernstein’s music. The score developed a cult following when an album of the original cast recording was released. Over the next few decades a series of Candide revivals took place, with various levels of involvement by the composer. Throughout all of the iterations though, the joyous Overture, a sparkling homage to the wit of Rossini, remained largely untouched. ‘Tonight’ from West Side Story Leonard Bernstein Between the demands of his career as a pianist and conductor, it’s astonishing that Leonard Bernstein wrote such a significant catalogue of works. Especially when considering how time consuming the development of a musical is. When it opened in 1957, this gritty retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, had been in the works for a decade – including a period where it was called Gangway! Alongside Bernstein, the creative team was choreographer Jerome Robbins, and as a late addition, the promising protégé of Oscar Hammerstein, librettist Stephen Sondheim. Tonight was the second-to-last song written for the show, after the previous melody was deemed too gentle, not reflective enough of the passion Tony and Maria would feel on their first night together. Stuck for fresh ideas, Bernstein and Sondheim instead turned to these character’s lines in the earlier Tonight Quintet, and simply expanded it into a stand- alone duet. The result is so completely effective that one cannot assume the melody wasn’t imagined in this form first. 4 PROGRAM | MUSICAL THEATRE GALA Overture, ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’ and ‘All I Ask of You’ from The Phantom of the Opera Andrew Lloyd-Webber In 1984, Andrew Lloyd Webber was well on his way to becoming the most commercially successful composer in history as declared by The New York Times. In the wake of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita, he contacted his Cats co-producer Cameron Mackintosh with another new idea. It would be a romantic piece based on a French novel and devised as a vehicle for his second wife, the soprano Sarah Brightman. Lloyd Webber was entranced by this gothic tale of an ingenious artist hiding in the catacombs of a Parisian opera house, helplessly in love with a young ingénue. Lloyd Webber wrote the musical around this character, Christine Daaé, giving her memorable and dramatic melodies like ‘Wishing you were somehow here again’, and the romantic duet, ‘All I Ask of You’ that also showcased the breadth of a soprano. Lloyd Webber lent into the operatic inspiration, almost playfully sending up the serious form, with his cheeky operas-within-the-musical and penning a few notes that were later argued to be directly lifted from Puccini’s melodies. Most ubiquitous though, is the descending chromatic scale that figures so prominently in the Overture and signals the cloaked arrival of the enigmatic Phantom throughout the piece. ‘Out There’ from The Hunchback of Notre Dame Alan Menken In a round-about way, The Lion King is responsible for The Hunchback of Notre Dame making it to the stage. For several years, the Berlin Theatre had been in talks to stage the stage The Lion King, but when negotiations failed, Disney offered the rights to premiere the stage adaptation of the 1996 feature film in its place. Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame was granted a special license, to be performed exclusively in the one German theatre for its entire run, and didn’t transfer after it closed.