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PROGRAM The Little Orchestra Society Concerts That Captivate Thomas K. Scherman, Founder (1917–1979) 59th Season 2006–2007 2007 Adult Concert Series Sound Discoveries™ DINO ANAGNOST, Music Director JOHN KORDEL, Managing Director Thursday Evening, March 22, 2007, at 7:30 p.m.
DINO ANAGNOST, Conductor ESTELLE PARSONS, Guest Host and Narrator METROPOLITAN SINGERS/THE GREEK CHORAL SOCIETY
The Red Mill (1906) VICTOR HERBERT (1859–1924) Score compiled by DINO ANAGNOST New Libretto by ALYCE MOTT Original 1906 Libretto & Lyrics by HENRY BLOSSOM
Cast in order of appearance
Narrator Estelle Parsons Berta, a widow and sister of Camille Gifford, Mezzo Soprano Jan van Borkem Gretchen, daughter of Jan van Borkem Kerri Marcinko, Soprano Con Kidder, a stranded American James Kee, Baritone Kid Conner, a stranded American John Koch, Tenor Dori van Damm, a Sea Captain Bryan Register, Tenor Jan van Borkem, Burgomaster of Lawrence Harris, Baritone Katwyk-ann-Zee Franz, the Sherriff of Katwyk-ann-Zee Matthew Singer, Baritone Comtesse de le Fere, a French Noble Woman Melissa Parks, Mezzo Soprano Joshua Pennyfeather, a British Solicitor Richard Conrad, Baritoner Governor of Zeeland Constantinos Yiannoudes, Bass-Baritone Chorus of Villagers Metropolitan Singers/ The Greek Choral Society
This performance is made possible in part by the generosity of The Victor Herbert Foundation
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PROGRAM Act I Overture The Legend of the Mill Opening Chorus Mignonette Go While The Goin’ Is Good If He Loved But Me I Want You to Marry Me The Isle of Our Dreams Whistle It The Streets of New York Ensemble Finale Act I Intermission
Act II Entr’Acte Opening Chorus The Legend of the Mill Reprise You Never Can Tell About A Woman I’m Always Doing Something I Don’t Want To Do Every Day Is Ladies’ Day With Me Moonbeams/Isle Reprise Because You’re You Wedding Chorus Finale Act II
Staging created by Alyce Mott Concert Production Manager Daniel Wellman
The use of cameras, tape recorders, and video equipment is strictly forbidden at these performances. We thank you for your cooperation in these matters. As a courtesy to our audience members, latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management. This program is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs. The Little Orchestra Society acknowledges the generous assistance of Herbert P. Jacoby, Esq. of The Victor Herbert Foundation, and Quade Winter for his efforts in preparing the orchestral score and parts for this production. Mr. Winter utilized the original 1906 Herbert handwritten scores to construct the orchestral parts you enjoy this evening. Metropolitan Singers/The Greek Choral Society is a member of Chorus America.
For more information about The Little Orchestra Society, call 212.971.9500 or go online www.littleorchestra.org 03-22 LOS 3/8/07 10:04 AM Page 3
PROGRAM Meet the Artists
Dino Anagnost Dino Anagnost, Music Director of The Little Orchestra Society since 1979, has conducted the Society in over 1,000 concerts. He has brought to the organization not only his musical gifts, but also his remarkable programming innovations. In 1993, Maestro Anagnost created Sound Discoveries™, a series dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, which has presented American and New York premieres of Rolf Lieberman, Ned Rorem, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Mikis Theodorakis, Max Bruch, Gian Carlo Menotti, John Corigliano, and Benjamin Britten. In addi- tion, these programs have offered New York concert premieres of the best of 100 years of film music; including John Williams’ Schindler’s List, Franz Waxman’s Sunset Boulevard, Hugo Friedhoffer’s The Best Years of Our Lives, Miklós Rósza’s Spellbound Concerto, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s The Prince and the Pauper, Dimitri Tiomkin’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia, and Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Assassination of Duc de Guise. Sound Discoveries also has begun to restore to the modern repertoire the delightful music of Victor Herbert with its Victor Herbert Renaissance Project produc- tions of The FortuneTeller, Cyrano de Bergerac, Babes In Toyland, Mlle Modiste, Eileen, Sweethearts, and Naughty Marietta. As Dean of Music at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of America, Maestro Anagnost created The Cathedral Concerts—Great Music Under a Byzantine Dome, a series which has presented some of the conduc- tor’s own compositions and arrangements, as well as New York premieres of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Christopher Rouse and John Tavener. Through Happy Concerts for Young People begun in 1948 and the Lolli- Pops™ series for ages three to five created in 1986, Mr. Anagnost continues his zealous commitment to bringing live classical music to young audiences, introducing the glories of classical music to more than one million metro- politan area young people. A native of Manchester, New Hampshire, Maestro Anagnost graduated from Boston University, The Juilliard School, and Columbia University where he is currently adjunct professor of music. He was nominated for a Grammy and was conferred the honor of Commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his service to Italian music in the United States.
Estelle Parsons Academy Award–winning actress Estelle Parsons (Narrator) has distinguished herself in all major areas of the entertainment field. Upon her arrival in New York City, she was hired as one of eight people who put together the NBC Today show on national televi- sion and became the first woman to do political news reporting for a television network. Her successful television career is highlighted by her role as Mother Bev on Roseanne and several roles on All in the Family and Archie’s Place. Ms. Parsons made her Broadway debut in Happy Hunting with Ethel Merman and proceeded with starring roles in, among others, The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and George Rose, Miss Margarida’s Way, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, and The 03-22 LOS 3/8/07 10:04 AM Page 4
Norman Conquests. She won an Academy Award for the movie Bonnie and PROGRAM Clyde and was nominated for a second Oscar for Paul Newman’s Rachel, Rachel. Other numerous film credits include I Never Sang for My Father, Don’t Drink the Water, Dick Tracy and Boys on the Side. Jerry Herman’s Nightcap launched her varied nightclub career. She premiered her own solo nightclub act at The Ballroom before touring it nationally. Ms. Parsons has taught at Yale, Columbia, Sarah Lawrence and Vassar, and was artistic direc- tor of the Actors’ Studio in Manhattan for five years. She directed Salome with Al Pacino on Broadway in 2003. Ms. Parsons returns to The Little Orchestra Society’s Victor Herbert Renaissance Project performances hav- ing been a wonderful Mme. Cecile in Herbert’s Mlle Modiste.
The Little Orchestra Fifty-nine years ago, on October 27, l947, in New York’s historic Town Society Hall, The Little Orchestra Society raised its musical voice with Josef Haydn’s Sinfonie Concertante. Unique at the time of its creation, the Orchestra’s mission was to “revive the small, elegant, compact type of ensemble for which the early great orchestral works were written and to wrest the contemporary concert repertoire from the rut of established stereotypes with premieres of important new music and restorations of long-neglected masterpieces.” More than five decades of innovative concerts have included world, American and New York premieres in all of New York’s major concert halls; American and foreign tours; radio broadcasts; recordings; and a complement of awards for programmatic excellence. The Orchestra presents music for all ages, from its unique Lolli-Pops™ concerts for pre-schoolers to its Sound Discoveries™ and Vivaldi’s Venice programs for adults. In its adult concerts at Alice Tully Hall, The Little Orchestra Society has introduced more than 65 world premieres of works by composers ranging from Franz Schubert to Douglas Moore and David Diamond; more than l75 American and New York premieres from Antonio Vivaldi to John Corrigliano and Christopher Rouse; and revivals of many long-neglected orchestral pieces from Muzio Clementi to Sergei Rachmaninoff and Aaron Copland. By means of ingenious concert versions, more than 60 operas have been offered with outstanding success to The Little Orchestra Society subscribers. Vivaldi’s Venice, the Orchestra’s enormously successful spring festival at Alice Tully Hall, offers an in-depth look at Antonio Vivaldi’s life and times through a comprehensive presentation of his compositional output. During the last decade, audiences have been re-introduced to oratorios, operas, con- certos, chamber music, cantatas, orchestral pieces, and transcriptions of the Venetian master and his contemporaries. The Little Orchestra Society has become the foremost Vivaldi orchestra in America. The first orchestra in New York to present professional classical music concerts for children (l948), its Happy Concerts for Young People at Avery Fisher Hall have provided over one million school children a first acquaintance with great music and have been broadcast nation-wide to hundreds of thousands of homes. These concerts have won the coveted George Foster Peabody Award for outstanding and venturesome programming. The Society, conducted by Dino Anagnost, recorded three works from the Happy Concerts repertoire— Peter and the Wolf, Gerald McBoing Boing, and A Zoo Called Earth, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. In addition, the Orchestra has recently released its first live-performance DVD of a Lolli-Pops™ concert, The Orchestra—A Happy Family, which has won critical acclaim. Founded by Thomas K. Scherman who remained its music director until his death in 1979, The Little Orchestra Society has been under the direc- tion of Dino Anagnost for the past 28 years.