The Bernstein Project

Leonard Bernstein: /Bright Sheng: Arias and Barcarolles

Interval

Leonard Bernstein: /Garth Sunderland: Trouble in Tahiti

Nicholas Kok conductor

Elaine Tyler-Hall director

Aaron Marsden designer

Marc Rosette lighting designer

Catherine Hopper Dinah

Dean Robinson Sam

Psappha, one of Britain's leading new music ensembles, presents Bernstein's first foray into music theatre, his one-act operatic masterpiece Trouble in Tahiti. With its bittersweet exploration of the shattered American dream, and a day in the life of a young married couple, it bites deep into the Big Apple, drawing on jazz, musical and operatic idioms, as well as pop-ish jingles of the early 1950s.

'I like music with a theme, not all them arias and barcarolles,' declared President Eisenhower to Bernstein. Nearly 30 years later the composer responded wittily with Arias and Barcarolles, another semi-autobiographical entertainment, setting mostly his own texts exploring the joys and frustrations, hopes and realities of family relationships. Bright Sheng's inventive scoring for strings, percussion and two singers loses none of Bernstein's piquant use of a variety of musical styles.

'The production, mounted by Psappha stands out among the many I've seen. The 12 players sounded radiant, and projected their tricky lines with striking precision.'
(The Sunday Times on Maxwell Davies's The Lighthouse, 2009)