My personal theater nostalgia is rife with fond memories of concert versions of works that are rarely performed in full or feature singers and orchestras illuminating the musical virtues of a work that doesn’t receive frequent attention.
In a one-time afternoon program, “Bernstein: Opera to Broadway” at the Mildred and Ernest E. Mayo Concert Hall at the College of New Jersey, Boheme Opera NJ added a new occasion to my list.
As connoted by the title, Leonard Bernstein was a prolific composer whose oeuvre covers everything from opera to choral works to Broadway revues and musicals.
Boheme provided a compact sampler, the first half of its program being Bernstein’s rarely done comic piece, “Trouble in Tahiti,” the second half being selections from “Candide,” “West Side Story,” and “On the Town.”
“Trouble in Tahiti” demonstrates Bernstein’s gifts as a composer and lyricist. The score features the urban jangle that characterizes the composer’s works from the 1950s while wittily calming the city noise to the suburban ease and, well, malaise, he is spoofing. Best of all, “Trouble in Tahiti,” includes a parody of a musical number that might appear in a flimsy romantic movie set in the tropics.
Bernstein’s comments on marriage, manhood, ongoing relationships, and silly movies resonates throughout his clever opera.
Boheme is always musically meticulous, Joseph Pucciatti keeping disciplined yet creative control of his orchestra and singers’ vocals. On this occasion, a trio made the most of Bernstein’s “Jordanaires” — like chorus, commenting in swing rhythm to plot circumstances, while Ashley Kay Armstrong gave a cleverly nuanced performance as a neglected, denigrated, yet perky suburban housewife and Kevin Patrick scored as her fussy, competitive, but eventually accommodating husband.
Both Armstrong and Patrick had signature moments. Armstrong matched Bernstein’s wit in singing about a formulaic movie musical, ironically called “Trouble in Tahiti.” Not only were her vocals varied and commentating, but Armstrong amusingly moves her arms and hips, undulating to the Hollywoodish tropical rhythms her character ridicules. Patrick, patently surly as a husband and businessman, aces his solo about men’s nature following his character winning a gold trophy in a tournament at his gym.
Whether writing with Stephen Sondheim, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Richard Wilbur, or providing his own lyrics, Bernstein composed many memorable songs from classic musicals.
Brynn Terry brought out all of the comedy and mock pathos in the magnificent aria from “Candide,” “Glitter and Be Gay.” Terry had particular fun with the parts of the song that approximate laughter.
Terry’s duet with Patrick of “West Side Story’s” “Tonight” stirringly brought out all the number can offer. The pair were also deft in leading “Make Our Garden Grow” from “Candide.”
As in “Trouble in Tahiti,” Ashley Kay Armstrong found extra depth in “Somewhere,” the “West Side Story” standard for which Bernstein also wrote the lyrics.
Excellent work was also done by Bryan McClary on “Lonely Town” from “On the Town” and the ensemble in general on “Candide’s” “Best of All Possible Worlds” (with Mathew Tartza as Pangloss) and “Make Our Garden Grow.”
Boheme’s next production is Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” set for March 21 and 23 at the Kendall Stage at the College of New Jersey. www.bohemeopera.org.
