Bernstein's 'Mass' Celebrated at Catholic U.

By Mary McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 4/10/03)

When it was announced to the public that Catholic University in Washington would perform Leonard Bernstein’s "Mass" to inaugurate not only the Great Room in the new Pryzbyla University Center, but also the first President’s Concert, University President Father David M. O’Connell said he received many complaints.

The complaints deemed the musical as "irreverent" and "sacrilegious." Someone asked, "How could The Catholic University of America justify presenting a performance that depicts such a crisis of faith?" Father O’Connell responded to this question in his opening remarks before the performance Saturday night, saying, "If The Catholic University of America, of all places, cannot address crises of faith, who can?"

Father O’Connell presented Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center with the university’s highest honor, the President’s Medal, "for its role in originating ‘Mass.’" The musical was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy and first performed in 1971 for the opening of the Kennedy Center.

There were almost as many people involved in the powerful performance of ‘Mass’ as there were spectators in the sold-out seating. With the exception of the celebrant, played by Douglas Webster, and the boy soprano played by Gleb Drobkov, the rest of the 300 members of the cast, choirs, and orchestra were CUA students and teachers.

The star of the performance was the conductor and dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Murry Sidlin. Sidlin’s silver hair shined in the lighting throughout the show as he conducted the orchestra for nearly two hours. Last weekend marked the eighth time Sidlin has conducted "Mass."

In a recent press release, Sidlin called "Mass" "the best of Bernstein. It combines his eclectic musical language of American impressionism, jazz, Broadway, folk, rock, with his political and humanistic obsessions, his deep sense of faith and reverence against the backdrop of hypocrisy, vis-à-vis the lightweight justifications for the Vietnam War, the once-a-week religious edicts, and that many Americans of Color had to fight or beg to vote and to have full citizenship privileges."

This latest performance marked the fourth time Sidlin has conducted the musical with Douglas Webster starring as the celebrant.

Webster has come to be known as the "foremost interpreter" of the role of the celebrant. Webster debuted singing the role at Bernstein’s 70th birthday celebration at the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Mass., and Bernstein commented, "He’s got it all: The highs, the lows, the ‘look’ and the croon."

Webster was nearly out-shined by the incredibly talented cast of CUA singers.

The Street Chorus was composed of 24 of Catholic’s best vocalists. The singers mirrored the Celebrants troubles and turmoil in coming to terms with their religious beliefs.

In "I Don’t Know" and "Easy," Alan Wiggins, Mark Bush, Danny Tippett, Kurt Boehm, Eric Thompson, Dane Edidi and Teresa Scalise confess their vices. The petite Scalise dressed in leopard-print and leather, surprised the audience with the power of her voice and her ability to sing over the voices of five men.

Brian Cali plays the part of a zealous preacher who leads the other chorus members to wonder about God’s purpose in creation in "God Said."

The only actor, other than Webster, not associated with Catholic University is Gleb Drobkov, the boy soprano. Playing the part of a devout altar server, Drobkov complements the tenor Webster with his angelic soprano solos.

The tensions rise through the musical as actors ask "Will I become a god again?" (Philip Olarte), "You said you’d come again, When?" (Kristin Green), and "Does God believe in me?" (Wiggins).

The stress crescendos until all of the 300 members of the cast, chorus and orchestra sing in competition in "Agnus Dei," which, at its height, was so overwhelmingly impressive, it left the audience as breathless as the singers.

Last weekend’s performances of "Mass" followed a week of discussions held at Catholic to discuss the musical in reference to culture and society in the 1960s. At a time when the student body at Catholic is deep in debate with each other and their professors on the current conflict in Iraq, they were invited to engage in seminars reflecting on what many of their parents might have experienced in the 1960s during the Vietnam War.

Catholic University chose to perform "Mass" before its relevance to the present was fully realized, but the 30-year-old play written about Catholic Mass by a man of Jewish faith is still embraced by adults and youths alike because of its themes of peace and the search for true spirituality. 

Copyright ©2003 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.