Leonard Bernstein: Mass, oratorio scénique (2018)

With the coming opening (1971) of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jacqueline Kennedy the widow of President Kennedy, asked Leonard Bernstein to write a piece to open its theater. Bernstein was a great American Composer and the preeminent conductor of the New York Philharmonic. It had been ten years since his 1961 success from West Side Story. The composer decided that the most universal quality of who John Kennedy was, was that he was the first Catholic president. Bernstein believed could create his version of the Mass in opera. Bach and Mozart had famously created orchestration based upon the segments of the Catholic mass. Through the music, from "confessions" to segments of the ritual, the opera 'questions' the relevancy of God and faith, but in the end reaffirms our faith and God's relevance in our lives. Opening night attendance was a parade of the powerful in DC including the wealthy and powerful government leaders.