Posted April 20, 2015
DAYTON, OH (April 20, 2015) – On Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 8 p.m. at the Stuart and Mimi Rose Music Center at The Heights, Dayton Performing Arts Alliance will present An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein, providing a stellar and early liftoff for the DPAA 2015–2016 Ascend season. This performance will help inaugurate the new 4,500-seat Rose Music Center at The Heights in Huber Heights, OH. Leadership Sponsor for this performance is Kettering Health Network and Performance Sponsor is Dayton Daily News/Cox Media Group Ohio. Associate Sponsor is Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio, Supporting Sponsor is Gottschlich & Portune, LLP, and Contributing Partner is F&P America Mfg., Inc. The DPAA Innovation Partner for the performance is the DP&L Foundation—Powering Innovation in the Performing Arts.
This exciting program is a remarkable collaboration of Dayton Opera, Dayton Ballet, and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO), including the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus, with all DPAA art forms working together to present the finest songs and dance numbers from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatest American musicals of all time. Dayton Opera Artistic Director Thomas Bankston, Dayton Philharmonic Artistic Director and Conductor Neal Gittleman, Dayton Ballet Artistic Director Karen Russo Burke, and DPO Chorus Director Hank Dahlman together present an outstanding celebration of music, song, and dance in the open air in this gorgeous new outdoor venue. Dayton Opera welcomes to the stage soprano Laura Portune, mezzo-soprano Christina Baldwin, and baritone Gabriel Priesser for this performance. Dayton Opera favorite Gary Briggle returns to Dayton to direct this program, and he will take the stage as well, lending his incredible talent as both performer and master of ceremonies for the evening.
The evening opens, appropriately, with orchestra, vocalists, ballet and chorus coming together for the beloved “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from State Fair. Then, featured vocalists join the DPO for the smash hit Oklahoma! with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “Many a New Day,” “People Will Say We’re In Love,” and “Oklahoma!” Of course, Dayton Ballet joins the vocalists on stage for the lovely “Many a New Day.” Next, the DPO visits the classic tale Cinderella with “The Stepsisters’ Lament.” Then, a lively trio of tunes from Carousel includes “Carousel Waltz,” “If I Loved You,” and “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” in which performances from all three art forms fill the night air with a hint that summer is on its way!
After intermission, the DPO sets the stage for more hits, beginning with the “Guadalcanal March” from Victory at Sea. Opera vocalists and dancers rejoin the DPO for a trip to South Pacific, including three delightful and unmistakable numbers: “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,” and “Some Enchanted Evening.” A majestic tribute to The King and I follows with “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” “I Have Dreamed,” and “Shall We Dance,” in which Dayton Ballet, with Dayton Opera and the DPO, dazzles once again.
The performance draws to a conclusion with a familiar stroll through the mountains of Austria, where one can almost hear Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music with the title song “The Sound of Music,” followed by “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and closing with “Do-Re-Mi.”
Composer Richard Rodgers and librettist and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein together represent what is considered to be the most successful partnership ever in the history of American musical theatre. Rodgers and Hammerstein first came together in 1943 to create one of the most well-known and widely performed musicals of the 20th century—Oklahoma! The collaboration joined Rodgers’ musical comedy with Hammerstein’s operatic background, the successful combination of talent leading thereafter to over forty shows and film scores over the next several years of musical collaboration.
After the success of Oklahoma!, the duo created a string of Broadway smashes during what is considered to be the “golden age” of musical theatre, captivating audiences worldwide with shows such as Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, and The King and I. In addition to Broadway musicals, Rodgers and Hammerstein also wrote two musicals specifically for media other than the stage: State Fair for film in 1945 and Cinderella for television in 1957. Arguably, the duo’s most successful project by far was the 1965 production of The Sound of Music, which won the 1965 Oscar for Best Picture and remains one of the most popular musical films of all time.
All told, the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein earned them 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammy Awards. No creative duo since then has come close to this incredible level of achievement.
DPAA pays tribute to these two amazing and prolific artists on May 16, 2015, for one of the first performances in the new Rose Music Center at The Heights, a 4,200-seat fully covered outdoor amphitheatre in The Heights development, located conveniently off I-70 in Huber Heights, Ohio. The new venue is owned by the City of Huber Heights and managed by MEMI – Music Entertainment Management Inc.
With a musical lineup as star-studded as this performance, outside in the spectacular new Rose Music Center at The Heights, with three of Dayton’s finest performance arts organizations performing to perfection, it will most certainly be “Some Enchanted Evening,” indeed!
Tickets for An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein range from $25 to $74 and are available by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Full-time students of any age may purchase tickets in tiers A, B or C for $25 with student ID. For more information on this performance, or to order subscriptions to the DPAA’s 2015-2016 Ascend Season, including flexible subscription types that include all three art forms, please visit www.daytonperformingarts.org.
HOW TO GO:
What: An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein
Where: The Rose Music Center at the Heights, 6800 Executive Blvd., Huber Heights, OH
When: Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
Cost: $25-$74; Student prices (full time students of any age) are $25 for tiers A, B & C.
Tickets/More Info: Call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or visit www.daytonperformingarts.org.