As Steven Reineke sees it, the ideal way to start the NSO Pops season is to assemble a cast of hundreds in a show highlighting crowd-pleasing hits from the musical catalog of Broadway’s most iconic creative team. And this is exactly what he has done; calling his show, appropriately, “Some Enchanted Evening: The Music of Rodgers and Hammerstein.” Even the title seems larger than life.
“I wanted to open with something big and glorious,” said Reineke, who begins his premiere season as the NSO’s principal Pops conductor. “I love doing the standard repertoire of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Everything is big — it’s all the hits of the hits.”
| ONSTAGE |
| NSO Pops: Some Enchanted Evening: The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein |
| » Where: The Kennedy Center Concert Hall |
| » When: 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday |
| » Info: $20 to $85, 202-467-4600; 800-444-1324, kennedy-center.org |
Reineke has chosen a trio of singers that features the voices of soprano Rebecca Luker, tenor Aaron Lazar and lyric baritone Rod Gilfry. Each, according to the maestro, “are wonderful soloists who have current, contemporary careers” and who will give the music “a breath of fresh air.” They, along with the orchestra and the combined hundred-plus voices of the Washington Chorus bring to life the lyrical scores of “South Pacific,” “The King and I,” “Carousel,” “The Sound of Music” and the team’s musical giant, “Oklahoma!”
“Rodgers and Hammerstein were two of the most influential people in musical theater history; and really, they revolutionized the [art form] in America,” Reineke continued. “They were the first people that injected pathos into musical theater [and] they made it more than slapstick comedy.”
Indeed, more serious and contemporary themes were injected into the team’s plot lines, as in the case of “Carousel,” where spousal abuse, murder and finally, redemption were presented to audiences.
“There would be no Stephen Sondheim if it weren’t for Rodgers and Hammerstein, especially Oscar Hammerstein, who took [Sondheim] under his wing when he was young,” Reineke pointed out. “These men are responsible for a big turnaround in theme, like the issue of race in ‘South Pacific’. This stuff is very important.”
However, neither theme nor chronological order of the musicals dictates the evening’s repertoire. Every number, rather than packaged in large scale suites, will instead be performed as individual selections, with Reineke setting up the particular musical and then presenting four songs from each.
“I also have an overture that I do with the orchestra and I feature the chorus in [the piece,] ‘It’s a Grand Night for Singing’ from ‘State Fair,’ he said. “And it will be a grand night for singing.”
