His eyes glinting, Mark Elder describes the most unlikely conducting assignment of his 40-year career. “I’m approaching this with the same seriousness as I would Parsifal,” he exclaims. “But in this world, being serious means letting rip. The show has to have zing, lilt, energy and fun. Yes, doing it is a populist gesture but we are determined to do it with integrity and panache. And when people in Manchester hear their beloved Hallé Orchestra blazing through Lenny Bernstein’s tunes, I think they will be blown away.”
The show he’s talking about is Bernstein’s 1953 musical Wonderful Town. And this new production is remarkable because of the people involved. Elder and the Hallé — more usually found playing Elgar or Mahler at the Bridgewater Hall — will be in the pit of the Lowry. “I’ll be conducting 15 shows in two weeks,” Elder says. “I did once conduct La Bohème every night for a fortnight — in Geneva with two casts. But two shows a day. I haven’t done that since the first year of my career.”
The staging is the responsibility of another Manchester legend, Braham Murray, artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre since its foundation 36 years ago. It will be his last production before retiring. “We’ve been trying to put this on for four or five years,” Elder says. “But we couldn’t get the money together for ages.”
Why is a top orchestra playing musicals at all? “It seems a bit madcap,” Elder agrees. “But I was determined that the Hallé should have the experience of playing in a pit, and I wanted to find out how I’d cope with conducting a musical. I’ve done music from West Side Story in concert, so I know how hard it is.”
Their first choice was Frank Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella but they couldn’t get the rights. “Wonderful Town was our next choice,” Elder says. “I first encountered it in 1999 at a Prom conducted by Simon [Rattle]. They did the conga round the Albert Hall. I found it thrilling. It’s so sprightly and mercurial. It’s not sentimental at all. It’s satirical and very funny.”
Advertisement
Loosely based on My Sister Eileen, Ruth McKenney’s bestselling collection of short stories, Wonderful Town is the tale of two small-town sisters (played by Connie Fisher and Lucy van Gasse) who come to New York in the 1930s looking for excitement and romance. “It has some love interest,” Elder says, “but the audience doesn’t know how that’s going to work out, because there are two girls and only one baritone.”
Bernstein wasn’t supposed to be involved. “After he wrote On the Town in 1944 he promised Koussevitsky [his conducting mentor] that he would never write another Broadway show,” Elder explains. “Leroy Anderson was the composer chosen for Wonderful Town. But the producers didn’t like what he wrote, so Bernstein was brought in at the last moment. He said yes because he loved tight deadlines.”
And his music? How does it compare with the sassy exuberance of On the Town, or the lyrical glories of Candide and West Side Story, which he wrote a little later? “It’s a great dance show, which means that there are rip-roaring moments for the band,” Elder says. “The first act is a brilliant build-up to the huge conga scene. Act II has less of a dramatic line. But all the way through there’s wonderful Thirties pastiche music. One of Bernstein’s tempo markings is Molto Duchino — that is, in the style of the Thirties bandleader Eddy Duchin.”
The score is for strings and a big-band, replete with a platoon of saxophones. Will the Hallé need reinforcements? “We have one saxophone in the orchestra, and the rest will be players we regularly work with,” Elder says. “The player on the drum kit will come from London. That part is vital. It’s like the continuo in 18th-century music; he keeps everything together. I’ll teach it to all the Hallé strings, and then rotate them during the fortnight, though we can get nearly 30 strings in the pit. It will be a great sound, and the orchestra is getting excited about what it will mean.”
For some players, won’t it mean a lot of time off? “Yes,” Elder says. “There are no horn parts, for instance. I’m starting a rumour that the horns are being sent on a tour of Manchester schools instead, playing Tippett’s Sonata for Four Horns. That’s got them worried.”
Advertisement
In any case the Hallé will play only for the first fortnight, when the show is in Manchester. The young conductor James Burton and a touring band take over when Wonderful Town goes on the road. “After that we hope it will come to London,” Elder says. “I don’t see why not. We’ve got a great cast and the advance box office is very encouraging.”
That will reassure the show’s lead commercial producer, Kenny Wax, and the backers — who include none other than Jeffrey Archer. Elder found out about the latter’s involvement only by accident. “I met him after I’d conducted the Britten Sinfonia in Cambridge, because his wife Mary is on the orchestra’s board,” he says. “We went to their house with about eight other people, and he said, ‘I’m putting money into a musical in Manchester.’ I said: ‘Oh really, what’s it called?’ He said: ‘Summertime. I’m doing it in March.’ I said: ‘That’s funny, because the Hallé and I are also doing a musical in Manchester in March. Mine’s called Wonderful Town.’ He then said: ‘Oh yes, that’s it!’ And he added, very loudly: ‘I’m the secret money.’ To which the only response was: ‘Well, it’s not much of a secret now.’ ‘Yes,’ he went on, ‘and I’m determined to make a profit, so you’d better be a good conductor — otherwise you’ll be back on the buses.’”
Archer can rest assured. After his golden decade at the musical helm of English National Opera, and 12 stupendous years with the Hallé, Elder’s reputation has never been higher. Just as well, perhaps, as he’s been signed up as a judge on the second series of the BBC reality-TV contest, Maestro — this one called Maestro at the Opera. “That’s going to be fun,” he grins, “and I think it will help to explain our mysterious job to millions of people.”
But as he approaches 65, what are his ambitions? “Oh, I probably ought to run an opera company somewhere,” he says casually — as if unaware of the growing feeling that he should become the next music director at Covent Garden. “But that will either come or it won’t, so I’m rather calm about it. In any case I’d love to conduct a cycle of Wagner’s Ring, which I’ve never done. But on the orchestral front I’m signed up to the Hallé till 2015. And after the concerts we’ve done this season I don’t want to go anywhere else. It’s a wonderful band in a wonderful town. Appropriate, don’t you think?”
Wonderful Town, Lowry (0843 2086000), Mar 31-Apr 21, then touring