UMS Concert Program, March 10, 1981: International Presentations Of Music & Dance --

Season: 102nd
Concert: Forty-sixth
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Paul Plishka
Bass-Baritone THOMAS HRYNKIW, Pianist
Tuesday Evening, March 10, 1981, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
None But the Lonely Heart.........Tchaikovsky
The Cradle Song...........Tchaikovsky
Don Juan's Serenade..........Tchaikovsky
The Harvest............Rachmaninoff
Spring Waters...........Rachmaninoff
Erlkoning.............. Schubert
Erstes Griin............. Schumann
Wanderlied............. Schumann
Ich grolle nicht, from Dichterliebe........ Schumann
"Non piu andrai" from The Marriage of Figaro......Mozart
INTERMISSION
Dovbush.........Ukrainian Folk, arr. D. Zador
Boundless Field.............Lysenko
Cranes...............L. Lepky
Days Pass..............Lysenko
Four Gambling Songs.........John Jacob Niles
Rovin' Gambler The Gambler's Wife The Gambler's Lament Gambler, Don't Lose Your Place
"Ella giammai m'amo" from Don Carlo........Verdi
Angel, ABC, Columbia, Erato, London, RCA, and Vox Records.
102nd Season--Forty-seventh Concert
102nd Annual Choral Union Series
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
ALVIN AILEY, Artistic Director Mary Barnett, Associate Artistic Director
Sarita Allen Carl Bailey Marilyn Banks Barbara Pouncie Beckles April Berry Roman Brooks Kevin Brown Ronald Brown Alistair Butler Debora Chase On leave of absence
Masazumi Chaya Daniel Clark Gary DeLoatch Patricia Dingle Neisha Folkes Ralph Glenmore Judith Jamison Mari Kajiwara Keith McDaniel Deborah Manning Sharrell Mesh
Michihiko Oka Nathaniel Orr Stanley Perryman Danita Ridout Maxine Sherman Linda Spriggs Gregory Stewart Dudley Williams Donna Wood Sara Yarborough
Tuesday Evening, March 10, 1981, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Alvin Ailey Company has come a long way since its 1958 debut with seven dancers at New York's 92nd Street YW-YMHA. As early as 1962 the Company appeared in the Far East, Australia, and London, and in 1970 captured first prize in the International Dance Festival in Paris. Also in 1970 the Company created a sensation on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour to the Soviet Union, performing in towns where Western dancers had never been seen before. Subsequent tours have taken the dancers to Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, Greece, Japan, Hon; Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Africa--all with seasons sold out before they began. The Company now numbers 30 dancers, with a repertory ensemble company, a workshop, a well-established school, and a repertoire that boasts such Ailey classics as Revelations and Blues Suite, as well as 50 ballets by over 30 major choreographers.
The Ailey Company first performed in Ann Arbor in 1969; this is the ensemble's seventh visit to the city for a total of 17 performances. The three concerts this week comprise a residency under the Dance Touring Program, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for the Arts.
102nd Season -Forty-sixth Concert
Tenth Annual Choice Series
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS None But the Lonely Heart.........Tchaikovsky
None but the lonely heart will understand how I have suffered and do suffer. I look afar . . . lose strength, my eye grows dim . . . Oh, someone loved me and knew-so long ago! Oh, none but the lonely heart will understand how I have suffered and do suffer. My spirit grieves, only the lonely heart will understand how I have suffered and do suffer.
The Cradle Song...........Tchaikovsky
Sleep my little one, go to sleep, Tranquil may thy slumber keep. For thy guardians I did find Feathered eagle, sun, and wind.
Don Juan's Serenade..........Tchaikovsky
All Granada deeply slumbers, to thy lattice come, appear! Hear thy Lover's rapturous numbers, deign his serenade to hear! Ev'ry eve when thou appearest, what fierce strife, what tender songs! But to thee, the fairest, dearest, of all--all my heart, my soul belongs!
The Harvest............Rachmaninoff
Oh you, my wheat field, you cannot be reaped with one stroke, you cannot be tied into one sheaf. Oh you, my thoughts, you cannot be forgotten at once, you cannot be expressed in one word.
The wind was blowing over you, my field, bending your spikes to the ground, dispersing the ripe grains. Wide apart you fell, my thoughts, and where each thought fell grew wild grass, grew up deep sorrow.
Spring Waters...........Rachmaninoff
Though still the fields are white with snow, the rushing of spring floods draws near. The banks are sunny where they flow; they sparkle as they run more clear; their voice the ice-bound fallow stirs: "The spring is here! The spring is here! We are the young spring's messengers, the heralds, we, of her advance." The spring is here!
Erlkonig (Goethe)............Schubert
Who rides so late through the night and the wind It is the father with his child;
he folds the boy close in his arms, he clasps him securely, he holds him warmly.
"My son, why do you hide your face so anxiously" "Father, don't you see the
Erlking The Erlking with his crown and his train" "My son, it is a streak of mist."
"Dear child, come, go with me! I'll play the prettiest games with you. Many
colored flowers grow along the shore; my mother has many golden garments."
"My father, my father, and don't you hear the Erlking whispering promises to me"
"Be quiet, stay quiet, my child; the wind is rustling in the dead leaves."
"My handsome boy, will you come with me My daughters shall wait upon you;
my daughters lead off in the dance every night, and cradle and dance and sing
you to sleep."
"My father, my father, and don't you see there the Erlking's daughters in the
shadows" "My son, my son, I see it clearly; the old willows look so gray."
"I love you, your beautiful figure delights me! And if you are not willing, then
I shall use force."
"My father, my father, now he is taking hold of me! The Erlking has hurt me!"
The father shudders, he rides swiftly on; he holds in his arms the groaning child;
he reaches the courtyard weary and anxious; in his arms the child was dead.
Erstes Griin (translation by William Mann)......Schumann
Thou young green, thou fresh grass! Many a heart was healed by thee that languished under winter's snow. Oh how my heart yearns for thee. Even now it sprouts from the dark earth; how my heart rejoices to see it! Here in the stillness of the forest I press the young green to heart and mouth. I shun the throng of humankind, no word of man can lighten my grief; only the fresh green laid on my heart, makes it beat more calmly.
LATER THAT DAY (First performance, February 1980)
Choreography: Kathryn Posin
Music: Philip Glass
Assistant to the Choreographer: Michael Kane
Costumes and Decor: Christina Giannini
Lighting Design: Chenault Spence
The Girl ............................................ Danita Ridout
The Boy...............................................Carl Bailey
The Man With The Book.............................Dudley Williams
The Chorus: Sarita Allen, Sharrell Mesh, Mari Kajiwara, Barbara Pouncie Beckles, Maxine Sherman, April Berry
Masazumi Chaya, Ronald Brown, Michihiko Oka, Kevin Brown, Daniel Clark, Roman Brooks
Kathryn Posin's works have appeared in the repertories of the Eliot Feld Ballet, the Juilliard Dance Ensembles. The Ohio Ballet, Ballet West, and the Nederlands Dans Theater. She has taught at Princeton, the Harvard Summer School Dance Center, the Connecticut College American Dance Festival, and in Switzerland and Hawaii. Ms. Posin was a Guggenheim Fellow for 1977-78, and she was the subject of a thirty-minute documentary film, Kathy's Dance, honored with a special jury award for outstanding achievement in the San Francisco Inter?national Film Festival.
Philip Glass, a Juilliard School graduate, has received awards which include a Ford Foundation Composer-in-Residence grant and a Fulbright grant which took him to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. Music for Later That Day is from the opera, Einstein On The Beach, for which Mr. Glass received a special Obie award in 1976. The opera was written in collaboration with Director Robert Wilson and had its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House.
"Later That Day" was made possible in part by a grant from New York State Council on the Arts.
INTERMISSION
TILT
(First performance, September 1975)
Choreography: George Faison
Lighting: Nicola Cernovitch
Decor and Costumes: George Faison
Lighting Supervision: Jeffrey Schissler
Dance Machine: Marilyn Banks, Linda Spriggs,
Maxine Sherman Pass: Maxine Sherman One Chance: Linda Spriggs Romance: Maxine Sherman
Tilt: Marilyn Banks, Linda Spriggs, Maxine Sherman
"Dance Machine" (Davis, Fletcher, Parks) sung by Jackson 5.
"Ask Me To Dance" (B. Scott) sung by Esther Marrow.
"I Ain't Been Licked" (Ashford and Simpson) sung by Diana Ross
"You Turn Me On" (Nona Hendryx) sung by La Belle.
"One For All and All For One" (Ashford and Simpson) sung by Diana Ross.
Wanderlied.............Schumann
Come fill up a bumper before we depart. Again will I pledge ye, old friends of my heart! Farewell, lovely scenes dear to kindred and home. I leave you awhile through the wide world to roam.
Ich grolle nicht, from Dichterliebe (Heine)......Schumann
I bear no grudge, even though my heart may break, eternally lost love! I bear no grudge. However you may shine in the splendor of your diamonds, no ray of light falls in the darkness of your heart.
1 have long known this. I saw you in a dream, and saw the night within the void of your heart, and saw the serpent that is eating your heart--I saw, my love, how very miserable you are.
"Non piu andrai" from The Marriage of Figaro.....Mozart
In this gaily rhythmical aria, Figaro chides Cherubino, the page of the Castle, who has just been ordered by the count to join his regiment. He teases the boy, who has always been the "darling of the ladies," about having to give up his beautiful clothes of silks and satins for his army uniform and frightens him about the horrors of war and soldiering.
"Ella giammai m'amo" from Don Carlo.......Verdi
There shall I sleep in royal slate alone, when of my days the twilight shall have ended. There in the dark I'll slumber unattended in Escurial's gloomy vault of stone.
About the Artist
Paul Plishka, distinguished bass of the Metropolitan Opera, is universally recognized as one of the finest artists now appearing on the opera and concert stage. He has been a leading singer of the Metropolitan Opera since 1967 and also performs regularly with such North American companies as those of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, New Orleans, Hartford. Toledo, Dayton, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, and the Opera Orchestra of New York. European audiences have experienced his artistry at La Scala, Covent Garden, Hamburg Staatsoper, Paris Opera. Munich Staatsoper, and Strasbourg Opera, as well as at the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds. This year he debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Macbeth and La Cioconda.
As an orchestral soloist. Mr. Plishka has enjoyed successes in his performances with the major orchestras of New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. His annual recital tours take him to the most prestigious concert halls in the country, and summers find him in recitals and operatic per?formances at Tanglewood, Meadow Brook, Blossom, Robin Hood Dell. Ravinia. and the Hollywood Bowl.
Mr. Plishka's current Metropolitan Opera season includes performances of Turandot, La Gioconda, Samson et Dalila, Mahaftonny, and Don Carlo. He also appeared in New York in Verdi's "Manzoni" Requiem with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a per?formance which was broadcast live on national television and recorded for CBS Records. Other engagements this season include Mozart's "Mass in C" with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, following a performance of the same work in Philadelphia; Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" with the New York Philharmonic; Verdi's "Requiem" in Monte Carlo and at the Hollywood Bowl; Dvorak's "Stabat Mater" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony; The Damnation of Faust at the Munich Staatsoper conducted by Seiji Ozawa; La Forza del destino at the Paris Opera; Khovanschina and Lakme with the Opera Orchestra of New York; and Lakme with the Dallas Civic Opera.
Mr. Plishka was born and raised in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, and began his musical studies at Montclair State College in New Jersey. When he was twenty-three he won first place in the Baltimore Optra Auditions and soon after joined the National Company of the Metropolitan Opera. When the Metropolitan dissolved its National Company, they invited Mr. Plishka to join the parent company and in 1967 he made his official debut in La Gioconda. Since that time he has performed over forty leading roles with the Metropolitan, including Ramfis in Aida, Wurm in Luisa Miller, Colline in La Boheme, Raimonda in Lucia di Lammermoor, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Pimen in Boris Godunov, and Procida in Vespri Siciliani. In 1974 he sang King Mark in Tristan und Isolde in the Metropolitan's landmark production with Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers.
Mr. Plishka appears in Ann Arbor this evening for the first time.
In 1966 George Faison joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater where he performed as a principal dancer for three years. He then danced in the original company of the Broadway musical "Purlie" and headed his own dance company, the highly acclaimed George Faison Universal Dance Experience. In 1974, Mr. Faison was awarded the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his choreography in "The Wiz." "The Wiz" also is a first for Mr. Faison as co-author of the dance music, including the "Tornado" and "Emerald City Ballet" sequences. He has staged television specials for Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole and provided musical staging for many others, including Roberta Flack, Ashford and Simpson, and Earth Wind and Fire. He has choreographed and costumed several ballets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
INTERMISSION
PLACES
(First performance, May 1980)
Choreography: William Chaison
Music: J. S. Bach as interpreted by Jacques Loussier
Lighting Design: Chenault Spence
Dudley Williams
William Chaison is a former member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and he has also appeared in the companies of Rod Rodgers and Eleo Pomare. He has had works accepted by the Southwest Regional Ballet Festival and the North Dakota Dance Consort. Mr. Chaison created the choreography for the American International film, "Sugar Hill." He is presently a faculty member of Kean College of New Jersey.
MEMORIA
This work is dedicated to the joy ... the beauty . . . the creativity . . . and the wild spirit of my friend Joyce Trisler
(First performance, November 1979)
Choreography: Alvin Ailey
Assistant to Mr. Ailey: Mari Kajiwara
Music: Keith Jarrett (Runes--Solara March)
Costumes: A. Christina Giannini
Lighting: Chenault Spence
How pitiful is her sleep, Now her clear breath is still. There is nothing falling tonight. Bird of man, As dear as she.
Nowhere that she should go Without me. None by my calling O nothing but the cold cry of the snow. --Kenneth Patchen
(In Memory of Kathleen)
In Memory -In Celebration
Sarita Allen Stanley Perryman Gary DeLoatch
Sharrell Mesh Ronald Brown Carl Bailey Daniel Clark April Berry Debora Chase
Masazumi Chaya Marilyn Banks Danita Ridout Barbara Pouncie Beckles Nathaniel Orr Deborah Manning
Linda Spriggs Keith McDaniel Patricia Dingle Kevin Brown Neisha Folkes Gregory Stewart
"Memoria" was made possible in part by a grant from New York State Council on the Arts.
Remaining Concerts
Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.......Wed. Mar. 11
Night Creature (Ailey, Ellington); Treading (Monte, Reich); The River (Ailey, Ellington); Revelations (Ailey, Traditional).
HAkas HACEckKD, Baritone (replacing Walter Berry, new date) . .Sat. Mar. 14 Songs of Schubert, Stenhammar, Ravel, Rangstrom, Martin, and Brahms.
New York Chamber Soloists..... Sun. Mar. 15
"A Venetian Evening"--music of Monteverdi and Vivaldi.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Andre Previn . . Thurs. Mar. 19
Haydn: Symphony No. 82 ("The Bear"); Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnol;
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band.......Mon. Mar. 23
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra Kurt Masur . . . Sun. Mar. 29
Mozart: Serenata Notturna, K. 239; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor; Beethoven: Symphony No. 7.
Faculty Artists Concert.........Sun. Apr. 5
"Virtuoso Music for Wind Instruments."
Guarneri String Quartet (sold out)......Mon. Apr. 20
Western Opera Theater, "Elixir of Love" .... Thurs. Apr. 23
Ann Arbor May Festival, 1981
Wednesday-Saturday, April 29, 30, May 1, 2, in Hill Auditorium The Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor Laureate Aldo Ceccato, Guest Conductor Judith Blegen, Soprano Ani Kavafian, Violinist
Gyorgy Sandor, Pianist
The University Choral Union
Faye Robinson, Soprano John Gilmore, Tenor
Katherine Ciesinski, Mezzo-soprano John Cheek, Bass
Wednesday--Ormandy and Blegen; Barber: Second Essay; Mozart: Exultate, Jubilate; Rach?maninoff: Vocalise; Stravinsky: Pastorale; Ravel: Habanera; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5.
Thursday--Ceccato and Kavafian: Rossini: Overture to Semiramide; Bruch: Violin Concerto in G minor; Dvorak: Symphony No. 8.
Friday--Ceccato, Choral Union, Robinson, Ciesinski, Gilmore, Cheek: Mozart: Symphony No. 41 ("Jupiter"); Rossini: Stabat Mater.
Saturday--Ormandy and Sandor: Harris: Symphony No. 3; Bartok; Third Piano Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra.
Series tickets still available at $40. $30, $20, $18; single concert tickets now on sale, from $5 to $15.
"100 Years of Great Performances"
This brand-new publication of the University Musical Society is available in the main floor and first balcony lobbies this evening for your perusal and purchase. In its 208 pages is a wealth of human interest and information, including: a 100th Season Anniversary Guest Book, hand?written greetings from each artist who performed that season; personal letters from nearly 200 artists who share reminiscences of their Ann Arbor performances over the years; a 100-year history tracing the Musical Society's growth from the small "Messiah Club" in 1879 to its present-day stature; and a roster of performing artists who appeared under our auspices from 1879 through 1979.
This anniversarysouvenir book is also available for purchase ($10 per copy) in our Burton Tower office, and at the following Ann Arbor locations: Borders Book Shop, Liberty Music Shop, and Little Professor Book Center.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Phone: 665-3717, 764-2538