2008-09 Season: Nov | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May

Opening Night:
Cool Jazz, Hot Romance
Michael Morgan, Conductor

November 14, 2008
Friday, 8:00pm, Paramount Theatre, Oakland

Pre-concert talk by John Kendall Bailey

Zipperz deals with adult subject matter and
may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

Program

George Antheil
Jazz Symphony (1925)

Nathaniel Stookey
Zipperz with a zippered libretto by Dan Harder
(World Premiere) with vocalists
Manoel Felciano and Eisa Davis
Sergei Prokofiev
Suites from Romeo & Juliet (1935)

Opening Night will sizzle, with explorations of love and lust taking center stage. The orchestra will give its first performance of the famous suites from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, the lush ballet score originally commissioned by the Kirov Ballet.

A contemporary look at lovers less ill-fated, inspired by the "zipper" poetry of Dan Harder, is offered by local composer Nathaniel Stookey. Stookey describes Zipperz as "a story of love and sex, a breathless affair for two singers and orchestra." The singers, who meet for the first time on stage and are drawn into a series of romantic encounters, come to the Paramount straight from Broadway. Manoel Felciano recently starred opposite Patti LuPone in Sweeney Todd, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright, actress and singer Eisa Davis now appears in the rock musical Passing Strange.

A short, jazz-influenced piece by avant-garde composer and classical music "bad boy" George Antheil will round out the program.