Music/Dance
Boston Pops kicks off season May 9 at Symphony Hall
Along with the Red Sox at Fenway Park and the Swan Boats in the Public Garden, there is no surer sign of the arrival of spring than the Boston Pops annual season in festively decorated Symphony Hall. The May 9 Opening Night concert fires off with a performance of George Gershwin’s Love Is Sweeping the Country set to a montage of photo-historian Joseph Sohm’s winning images. Broadway sensation Bewrnadette Peters is the opening night headliner.Local legend Maggie Scott, a long-time professor at the Berklee College of Music whose former students include Esperanza Spalding, will share her vocal talents in the first half of the concert. Michael Chertock will perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
The Boston Pops 2012 unifying theme, Visions of America, inspires a season dedicated to celebrating many of this country’s greatest musical traditions, with striking images from photo-historian Joseph Sohm’s extraordinary Americana collection featured throughout the season. Keith Lockhart, now in his 18th season as Boston Pops Conductor, will lead most of the concerts of the 127th Boston Pops season, May 9-June 16. In addition, the 2012 Boston Pops season will feature John Williams (June 1&2), Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (May 29&30), Patti Austin (June 14-16), a Barbara Streisand Tribute with Ann Hampton Calloway (May 15-16), a concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gospel Night with Charles Floyd, Crystal Aitkin, and Melinda Doolittle (June 9), Maureen McGovern (May 26), and tributes to George Gershwin and Cole Porter (June 5,6,&8). The Pops will also present Red Sox Night (May 24), in celebration of Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary; the program will feature John Williams’s newly composed Fanfare for Fenway.
Hershey Felder in Maestro: Leonard Bernstein
Now- May 13
ArtsEmerson:The World on Stage presents Hershey Felder in Maestro: Leonard Bernstein. Take an extraordinary journey through Leonard Bernstein’s life and career. Rooted in Boston history, this longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic, composer of acclaimed works like Candide, West Side Story, On the Town and Mass and Tanglewood icon broke through every artistic ceiling possible to become the world's musical ambassador. Award-winning actor, playwright and concert pianist Hershey Felder (George Gershwin Alone) returns to Boston with his latest composer creation, Maestro: Leonard Bernstein. Conductor, composer, pianist, author, teacher, librettist, television star...for Leonard Bernstein, boundaries simply did not exist.
Dance:
Boston Ballet:
At Boston Opera House
Fancy Free May 10 - 20
Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, Music by Leonard Bernstein
Spend a night on the town! See why Fancy Free, Robbins’ first ballet, has proved to be one of America’s favorites. Martins’ Barber Violin Concerto, a beautiful work to gorgeous music, and Lander’s Études, a one-act ballet often referred to as “an homage to classical
ballet training” complete this outstanding program.
Mark Morris Dance Group at Cutler Majestic May 17 -20
Mark Morris is a world-renowned choreographer of great ambition and endless invention; a dance master, though still brilliantly sculpting his legacy. He is also an unusual figure in the depth of his commitment to dance as a live music experience. This will be his only Boston appearance before his June appearance with the young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center on June 28 & 29th in Lenox.
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