Bravo, Bernstein!

On Sunday, March 25th Opera Las Vegas returned to the Smith Center to join in the worldwide centennial celebration for legendary composer Leonard Bernstein by presenting Bravo, Bernstein! in Myron’s Cabaret Jazz.

Leonard Bernstein is one of the most popular and successful American composers, conductors, and educators of the 20th Century. “Lenny” is being feted in a yearlong international celebration, “Bernstein at 100.” Opera Las Vegas happily joined in this worldwide party, raising voices in a euphoric song-filled overview of the Maestro’s towering career. The enthusiastic audience roundly cheered the performers.

Bravo, Bernstein! featured some of the area’s most accomplished singers who regaled the audience with beloved hits from West Side Story, On the Town, and Wonderful Town. They also treated patrons to a titillating taste of his inventive opera Trouble in Tahiti and the epic concert piece Mass, that served as a sensational opening of the Kennedy Center.

Some of Opera Las Vegas’ favorite performers, sopranos Marcie Ley and Athena Mertes, mezzo Ashley Stone, and tenors William McCullough and Aldo Perrelli took spectators on a diverse musical journey through the master’s repertoire, accompanied by pianist Spencer Baker.

While Maestro Bernstein had a prolific career all over the globe, his classical music retained a distinctly American sound, and his show tunes are among the most popular Broadway songs of all time. Attendees rediscovered the abiding richness of Lenny’s genius in Bravo, Bernstein!, an exuberant remembrance of his legendary talent.