Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Friday, September 10, 1971
3
Center opening features
By DONALD SANDERS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (Y') - T h e
John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts was formally
opened Wednesday night w i t h
the late president's family join-
ing in a standing ovation for
the featured work, a Mass by
Leonard Bernstein.
There was general critical ac-
claim for the Bernstein w o r k,
which he subtitled "a theater
piece for players, singers a n d
dancers," although some came
away wondering whether they
had fully understood it.
It was the third public per-
formance of the Mass, but the
first at which officials of the
cultural center authoried crit-
ical reviews.
The second of the center's
three major halls will have its
premier tonight, with the Na-
tional Symphony Orchestra un-
der its music director, Antal
Dorati.
The audience at Wednesday
night's premiere was compris-
ed of 2,200 invited guests drawn
from officials of the Kennedy
and Nixon administrations, the
president's council on the Arts,
performing artists and b e n e-
factors of the $66.4-million mar-
ble structure on the Bank of
the Potomac River near the Lin-
coln Memorial.
Mrs. Joseph Kennedy, mother
of the late president, came with
her son and daughter-in-law,
Sen. and Mrs. Edward K e n -
jnedy (D-Mass.) John Kennedy's
surviving sisters and many of
~ .,... -
his nephews and nieces were
among the guests, all of whom
paid $25, $50 or $100 for their
seats.
All joined in a 10-minute ova-
tion for Bernstein and his Mass,
portions of which are certain
to stir dispute among the faith-
ful.
Th ere is a moment near the
end when, in a thunderous cli-
max of the 'Agnus Dei," the
celebrant of the Mass is tor-
mented by those he though were
his followers and hurls the sac-
raments of bread and w i ne
down a flight of stairs a n d
breaks them on the floor.
"Look, isn't that odd?" the
celebrant sings. "Red and white
isn't red at all. It's sort of
brown and blue. What are you
staring at - haven't you ever
seen an accident before? How
easily things get broken."
Then he breaks the candles
on the altar and sings: "Oh
God in Heaven, haven't you ever
seen an accident before?"
This moment of remorseful-
ness and feeling that "I am not
worthy Lord" then dissolves into
a scene of reconciliation. The
celebrant is masterfully s u n g
and acted by Alan Titus.
At the end, acolytes treat up
the aisles, clasp hands w i t h
members of the audience and
say, "Pass it on.".
Then there is the recorded
voice of Leonard Bernstein say-
ing, "The Mass is ended; go in
peace," and the house li g h t s
come up.
Irving Lowens, music critic of
Washington's , Evening Star,
said: "I'm very impressed -
it's undoubtedly Bernstein's
greatest work - a florid mas-
terpiece."
And music critic Paul Hume
wrote in The Washington Post:
"Staged with marvelous imagi-
nation by Gordon Davidson, the
Kennedy Center's complex pro-
duction is magnificent."
If people talk animatedly
about the Mass during the next
two weeks it wil be presented at
the Kennedy center, they a r e
likely to talk about the center
itself even longer.
Critics have called it a marble
mausoleum and a bit of ag-
grandized posh. It is huge: 630
feet long, 300 feet wide, 10 feet
'Mass'
high, with the exterior and the
interior corridors all faced with
marble.
One occasional critic of the
center has been Sol Hurok, the
impressario, who had complain-
ed the halls were too small for
successful commercial bookings.
But Hurok said now he is
willing to give the center a try.
"I love it," he said.
As for Bernstein's work, Hurok
said, "He has a great philoso-
phy. He strives for a unifica-
tion and I only wish we had the
strength."
"You feel like crying," Hurok
said of the concert.
And Rose Kennedy, mother of
the late president said simply:
"It's marvelous. I think my son
would have liked it."
Me flee
NOArIAps
4
Lb"
Aill
'Mass' performance gets standing ovation
1Mass Apermanent addition
to, American theater repertory
NEWSPAPERS ... FRIEND
= == OF THE
_________ . ONSUMVERS
rI
Il
0
$1.50
EDITOR'S NOTE: The author of the following.
review is music editor of the Saturday Review and
editorialdirector of the Kennedy Center program;
miagazine.
By IRVING KOLODIN
WASHINGTON (P) Leonard Bernstein's 'Mass',.
belongs to a category of works known as "pieces
.d'occasion" or works written "for an occasion."
In bringing together the emotions of the com-
poser-a friend and great admirer of the man
whose name the building sadly bears-and the
motions of a cast of singers, dancers and play-
ers numbering more than 200-Bernstein has not
only glorified the "occasion" for which the work
was conceived, but made it "of a piece" in ano-
ther way.
In combining the liturgy of the Roman Cath-
olic Mass, from "Kyrie Eleison" to "Agnus Lei."
with a concept utilizing .sung and spoken inter-
polations in English the work of himself and Ste-
phen Schwartz, Bernstein has called into account
all the manner of means with which his career
has been associated: the concert hall and the mu-
sical stage, the pop tunes and the "Jeremiah"
symphony, and achieved a fusion more varied
and expressive than in any prior work of his.
It, puts the final stamp of "Made in America"
on a building whose like this country has not
previously seen.
According to his own description, "Mass" is
a "Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dan-
cers," but it might well have been called a "Mass
of Life" rather than anything resembling a sacred
service for the dead. Verdi put Italian opera into
his "Manzzoni Requiem" and Bernstein has un-
questionably drawn upon the techniques of the
"musical" for the score brilliantly staged by Gor-
don Davidson.
But the so-called "alien elements" have been,
for the most part, so sensitive to the more tradi-
tional content that the result must be considered a
permanent addition to the works of the American
theater repertory.
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