UMS Concert Program, January 10, 1957: Eleventh Annual Extra Concert Series -- Leonard Depaur

Season: 1956-1957
Concert: Fourth
Complete Series: 3199
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Charles A. Sink, President Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor Lester McCoy, Conductor
Fourth Concert 1956-19S7 Complete Series 3199
Eleventh Annual
Extra Concert Series
DEPAUR'S OPERA GALA
Leonard dePaur, Conductor
Lawrence Winters, Baritone
Inez Matthews, Soprano Luther Saxon, Tenor
Joy Mearimore McLean, Walter P. Brown, Berntece Hall,
Clyde Turner, George Marshall
Chorus and Orchestra
Thursday Evening, January io, 1957, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Four Saints in Three Acts.......Virgil Thomson
Libretto by Gertrude Stein
Prologue and Act I; Act III
Carmen Jones........Bizet--Hammerstein
Adapted by Robert Russell Bennett
Act I, Scene 3
INTERMISSION
Porgy and Bess.........George Gershwin
Concert arrangement by Robert Russell Bennett Soloists: Lawrence Winters and Inez Matthews
The Sleinivay is the official piano of the University Musical Society.
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES Four Saints in Three Acts
Libretto by Gertrude Stein ; music by Virgil Thomson
Four Saints in Three Acts is something between an opera and an oratorio. Its subject is the religious life, its leading characters, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Ignatius Loyola, along with the younger saints who are their pupils and apprentices, so to speak. There is also a Compere and Commere, a lady and a gentleman who converse with the chorus, the leading players, and with each other about the progress of the play.
Please do not try to understand the words of this opera literally, or to seek in its music any direct reference to Spain. If, by means of the poet's liberties with logic and the composer's usage of the simplest musical vernacular, something is evoked of the gaiety and mystical strength of lives consecrated to nonmaterialistic end, the authors will consider their message to have been communicated.
CAST IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Commere.....Joy Mearimore McLean
Compere.......Walter P. Brown
St. Settlement......Berniece Hall
St. Teresa I.......Inez Matthews
St. Stephen.......Clyde Turner
St. Ignatius......Lawrence Winters
St. Chavez.......Luther Saxon
St. Plan.......George Marshall
Prologue and Act I
St. Teresa at Avila, surrounded by younger saints and visited by St. Ignatius. St. Teresa's religious experiences and her active life as a religious organizer.
Act III
St. Ignatius with his pupils and St. Chavez near Barcelona; a visit from St. Teresa accompanied by her women; vision of the Holy Ghost, Last Judgment, and expiatory procession.
(By arrangement with Mercury Music Corp.) RCA-VICTOR recording LCT 1139
Carmen Jones
Conceived and adapted by Oscar Hammerstein III from the original music by Bizet, story by Prosper Merimee. Adapted for concert use by Robert Russell Bennett
Act I, Scene 3
Bizet's Carmen is a gypsy girl who works in a cigarette factory, flirts with Don Jose, a Corporal of Dragoons; and when tired of him, turns to Escamillo, a famous toreador, only to be killed by the jealous Don Jose. Oscar Hammerstein brilliantly adapted Bizet's opera, transferring its action from Seville, Spain, to a southern town in the United States during World War II. The factory makes parachutes, not cigarettes; Don Jose became Corporal Joe of the military police unit guarding the factory; Escamillo became Husky Miller, a prize fighter. The gypsy girls, Frasquita and Mercedes, with their smuggler friends, El Dancairo and El Remendado, became Frankie,
Myrt, Rum, and Dink. Most importantly, Hammerstein restored the original form of the opera--alternate passages of spoken dialogue and music--as Bizet created it for the Opera Comique.
Our scene takes place in Billy Pastor's Cafe. Three weeks earlier, Carmen, having brawled with one of the factory girls, was arrested and placed in the custody of Joe. En route to the guardhouse, she appeals to him to set her free, promising to meet him at Pastor's. Joe succumbs and is in turn arrested by his sergeant for neglect of duty. Tonight, his sentence completed, Carmen awaits Joe's arrival.
CAST IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Carmen........Inez Matthews
Frankie........Berniece Hall
Myrt......Joy Mearimore McLean
Rum........Walter P. Brown
Dink.........Clyde Turner
Sgt. Brown......George Marshall
Husky Miller.....Lawrence Winters
Corporal Joe.......Luther Saxon
Porgy and Bess
Music by George Gershwin; lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin; concert arrangement by Robert Russell Bennett
Theater-goers, opera devotees, and just plain music-lovers of every type, find happy meeting-ground in Porgy and Bess. America, and recently the entire world, has acclaimed this Gershwin classic. The woes of the crippled beggar, Porgy; his beloved but weak Bess; the malevolent Crown; and the carefree Sportin' Life, with his ever available "happy dust"; as well as the rest of Catfish Row's colorful inhabitants, arc all too well known for re-introduction here. Robert Russell Bennett has extracted the "high spots" of the score to provide this magnificent concert setting of a truly great achievement.
Introduction.............Orchestra
Summertime...........Inez Matthews
A Woman Is a Sometime Thing . . Lawrence Winters and Chorus
Gone, Gone, Gone............Chorus
My Man's Gone Now........Miss Matthews
Promised Land.......Miss Matthews and Chorus
Oh, I Got Plenty O' Nothin'........Mr. Winters
Bess, You Is My Woman Now . . Miss Matthews and Mr. Winters
Oh, I Can't Sit Down...........Chorus
It Ain't Necessarily So......Mr. Winters and Chorus
There's a Boat Dat's Leaving Soon for New York . . Mr. Winters
Oh Lord, I'm on My Way . Miss Matthews, Mr. Winters and Chorus
(By arrangement with Gershwin Publishing Corp.)
ARTUR RUBINSTEIN, Pianist.......... Jan. 14, 8:30
VIENNA CHOIR BOYS............ Jan. 20, 2:30
BYRON JANIS, Pianist............ Feb. 21, 8:30
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA....... Feb. 26, 8:30
BOSTON POPS TOUR ORCHESTRA........ Mar. 3, 2:30
THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA......... Mar. 10, 8:30
Sixteenth Annual
GHflmBER mUSIG FESTIUflli
Rackham Auditorium
quhrtetto iTRiiinno
Paolo Borciani, Violin Piero Farulli, Viola
Elisa Pegreffi, Violin Franco Rossi, Cello
This group plays their programs entirely from memory.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 8:30 P.M.
Capriccio (1669).............G. B. Vitali
Sonata (1651)...............M. Neri
Quartet No. 2, F major, Op. 92..........Prokofieff
Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 74..........Beethoven
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 8:30 P.M.
Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2..........Haydn
Quartet..............Valentino Bucchi
Quartet in G minor, Op. 10...........Debussy
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2:30 P.M.
Quartet in C minor, Op. 23, No. 4..........Giardini
Quartet in D minor, K. 421............Mozart
Quartet in C major (1812)...........Schubert
Season Tickets (3 concerts): $3.50 and $2.50 Single Concerts: $1.75 and $1.25
mny festiuhu
MAY 2, 3, 4, 5, 1957-6 CONCERTS
Performers
RISE STEVENS, Soprano ROBERT MCFERRIN, Baritone
LEONTYNE PRICE, Soprano DONALD GRAMM, Bass-Baritone
MARTHA UPTON, Contralto NICOLA MOSCONA, Bass
KURT BAUM, Tenor JOSEPH SZIGETI, Violinist
ROBERT MERRILL, Baritone GINA BACHAUER, Pianist
ALEXANDER BRAILOWSKY, Pianist
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA, Eugene Ormandy, Conductor
UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION, Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor Lester McCoy, Conductor
FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS, Geneva Nelson, Conductor
Season Tickets: $13.00, $10.00, $9.00, $8.00 at University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower.