Overture from "A Little Night Music" (Sondheim)

By David Govertsen

Photo by Elliot Mandel Photography

The overture from Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is an oddly appropriate musical number for these many months we have spent in quarantine.  Much like 2020, you never know quite what is coming next.

​Sondheim scraps the traditional instrumental overture one expects at the top of a musical drama and instead lets the singers kick things off, and a cappella at that.  The ensuing three minutes are a wild ride of key changes, shifts in tempo and texture, leaps of vocal register and dynamics, and musical moods that turn on a dime.  Listen as each singer switches roles between featured soloist, background accompaniment, and balanced four-part ensemble member (Sondheim actually composed this for five singers, bonus points if you can figure out how we covered all the parts with a quartet).  As a performer I love the variety that this kind of music provides, but it is certainly a major vocal workout.

Photo by Caroline Selfors on Unsplash

The overture contains three main themes that appear later in the show:  "Remember’" "Soon", and "The Glamorous Life".  Since live performances have come to a standstill there has been much time to reflect on music we made in the past.  Ah, how we laughed, ah, how we cried…remember?  Though in the context of the show it has a very different meaning, the lyrics seem to answer the question we are all asking:  Will life in the performing arts as we once knew it return?  Soon, I promise.  From the standpoint of a performer it is incredibly strange not to have worn a tuxedo for a concert in so long.  Pack up the luggage–Hi-ho, for the glamorous life!

Fortunately, Fourth Coast Ensemble has exciting plans to bring up the curtain once again with our seventh season.  The complete announcement of our inaugural HD season, including ticket info for three live broadcast concerts, will happen on January 5, 2021.  Until then, please enjoy this la la la from the archives!

This performance was recorded live on March 3, 2020 in Buchanan Chapel with pianist Kuang-Hao Huang.  Audio by Joshua Sauvageau. Video by Nadia Oussenko.

Author

Bass-baritone David Govertsen joined Fourth Coast Ensemble in 2017.  He has been active as a professional singer and educator for nearly twenty years, portraying a wide variety of opera’s low-voiced heroes, villains, and buffoons.  He discovered Schubert’s magical marriage of text and music as an undergraduate and has been hooked on art song ever since.