Dream Come True: Music Hall in the Park

It was the ultimate concert in the park – and one that few in Cincinnati had dared dream of.

About 6,000 people (estimate by Cincinnati Police) filled the new Civic Lawn opposite Music Hall Friday night to celebrate the re-opening of Washington Park, one of Cincinnati’s treasured downtown green spaces, long misused and neglected. (I spied an elderly couple listening from the balcony of their third floor apartment on 14th St. also.)

They brought blankets and lawn chairs -- whole families including their pets – to enjoy a rare joint concert by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Ballet and May Festival Summer Chorus.  Pops conductor John Morris Russell led with zest and community spirit, prefacing the concert with his trademark “Hello (fill in the venue) Washington Park!”

The weather was partly sunny and while threatening clouds passed over, nothing climatological interfered with the joyous occasion.
 

JMR leads "The Star Spangled Banner"

Evans Mirageas

The performance was held on a temporary stage on the Elm Street side of the park directly across from Music Hall.  Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas hosted the event after an introduction by Mark Perzel of WGUC-FM.

The program was beautifully assembled, paying tribute to the “nation of immigrants” with reference to the many threads that make up the fabric of America.  Opening with “The Star Spangled Banner” (descendant of a British drinking song), the first half included American composer Charles Ives’ “Variations on America,” “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite March” by Ohio-born bandmaster Karl King and -- with an eye toward the skies by Russell -- Johann Strauss’ “Thunder and Lightning Polka” (with the fireworks strictly by the Pops).

pas de trois from "Swan Lake" by Tchaikovsky (Cincinnati Ballet)

"Russian Sailors' Dance," Reinhold Gliere (Cincinnati Ballet)

Soprano Jacqueline Echols and tenor Luther Lewis from Cincinnati Opera’s “La Traviata” (which closed the Opera’s Summer Festival July 28 at Music Hall) joined the Pops and May Festival Chorus in the “Brindisi” from Verdi’s opera “La Traviata,” a toast to the nation’s Italian heritage.  Dancers from Cincinnati Ballet performed the pas de trios from act one of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” which, coincidentally was premiered the same year Music Hall was built (1877).  Four male dancers returned for a muscular interpretation of “Russian Sailor’s Dance” by Reinhold Gliere, who, Russell noted, was the uncle of Robert Glier, founder of Glier’s Meats in Covington, Kentucky, creator of Glier’s Goetta (Cincinnati’s famous breakfast sausage).

The first half closed with the Chorus singing the evocative folk song “Shenandoah” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (both sung at the 2012 World Choir Games opening ceremony July 4 at U.S. Bank Arena).

Making friends

Connie Hinitz with her pet Schih Tzu

Intermission allowed listeners to enjoy concessions on the perimeter of the lawn.  Dogs on leashes strolled the premises, while kids – and even grownups – took a “dip” in the colorful, interactive fountain adjacent to the lawn.

interactive fountain in Washington Park, Cincinnati, Ohio

Luther Lewis as Sporting Life ("Porgy and Bess")

The second half opened with Pete Anthony’s rousing “The Launch,” commissioned for Russell’s inaugural concert as Cincinnati Pops conductor last fall.  Mirageas introduced choice excerpts from “America’s greatest opera,” George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” featuring Echols, Lewis and baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., cast members of the Cincinnati Opera production June 28-July 8 at Music Hall.   Echols’ “Summertime” set the air shimmering.   “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” with Echols and Smith cast a rich operatic sheen, while Lewis stole the show (of course) with Sporting Life’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” encoring with “There’s a Boat That’s Leaving for New York.”  Smith’s “O Lawd I’m On My Way” made an inspiring finale.

"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B" (Cincinnati Ballet)

Dancers for Cincinnati Ballet returned (in sneakers, no less) for “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” choreographed with jive by Ballet associate artistic director Devon Carney.  Russell closed with the Overture to “America’s greatest musical,” “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein and “Ode to This Land,” a collage of Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” by Pops guitarist/arranger Timothy Berens, that brought the entire company onstage for a hand-clapping finale.  There was an encore, of course, John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” (shades of the late Pops conductor Erich Kunzel, whose dreams helped make the evening a reality).

Seen in the crowd were:  Patty Beggs, Meghan Berneking, Tatiana Berman, Todd Bezold, Dabby Blatt, Charlotte Brooks, James R. Cassidy and Angela Williamson, Ixi Chen, Trey Devey, John Fox, Connie Hinitz, Marcus Küchle, Thom and Beth Mariner, Chris Milligan, Rick Pender, Norma Petersen, Robert Porco, Judy Printz, Joe Somogyi, Heather Stengle, Steve Sunderman (and his Yorkshire terrier Zoe), Katie Syroney, Ashley Tongret and Phyllis Weston.

It was a grand night, long to be remembered.

photos by Mary Ellyn Hutton