This preview has been provided by the Concert Singers of Cary.

Samuel Barber created The Lovers during the years 1969-71 when not only was his longtime partnership with Gian Carlo Menotti, the acclaimed opera composer, deteriorating, but he was still being haunted by the failure of Antony and Cleopatra at the Metropolitan Opera (1966). This life experience is reflected in the despair of Pablo Neruda’s poetic exploration of the loss of love both erotic and spiritual. When you hear this music, try to feel the anguish of its composer as he faced these difficulties only to gradually become overwhelmed by his unconscious wounds and vulnerabilities, which in turn further stoked the fires of love gone wrong. Then, into this toxic brew, mix his worsening alcoholism. Given this context, one better understands why Barber chose Neruda’s passionate song of despair and why the music connects us so vividly to a situation that no one can escape. In some sense, our greatest loves remain with us equally and always, both those we have kept and those we have lost. In this regard, Barber’s musical approach to the text ultimately helps us heal our losses for the purpose of more fully experiencing the totality of love in all its joys and sorrows. Originally scored for an eighty-piece ensemble, this performance will utilize a fifteen-player chamber orchestra setting by Dr. Robert Kyr.

Also featured are love themed works by Eric Whitacre, Duke Ellington, René Clausen, Stephen Paulus, Jacob Groff and Jerome Kern. The full program is listed below.

Program

Personals
  Stephen Paulus
     1.  Thirty
     2.  Seeking Mr. Right
     3.  Good Looking Male
     4.  Dancing

Five Hebrew Love Songs
  Eric Whitacre
     1.  Temuna (A Picture)
     2.  Kala Kalla (Light Bride)
     3.  Larov (Mostly)
     4.  Eyze Shelleg! (What Snow!)
     5.  Rakut (Tenderness)

If Music Be the Food of Love
  David Dickau

Mood Indigo
  Duke Ellington/arr. Ed Lojeski

In The Night We Shall Go In
  Imant Raminsch

Lullaby
  Billy Joel/arr. Lawson

Calling My Children Home
  arr. Joseph H. Jennings

A Red, Red Rose
  James Mulholland

Autumn & Love Come And Gone
  Jacob Groff

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
  Jerome Kern/arr. Roy Ringwald

Set Me As A Seal
  René Clausen

The Lovers
  Samuel Barber
     1. Body of a woman
     2. Lithe girl, brown girl
     3. In the hot depth of this summer
     4. Close your eyes
     5. The Fortunate Isles
     6. Sometimes
     7. We have lost even this twilight
     8. Tonight I can write
     9. Cemetery of kisses

Easter Chorale
  Samuel Barber