by Rick Perdian | Seen and Heard International

The last time I visited Philadelphia’s Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts was in May 2021 for Opera Philadelphia’s The Drama of Tosca, a 90-minute concert performance of Puccini’s opera. Although the venue could accommodate thousands of patrons, attendance was limited to a few hundred under COVID-19 distancing protocols. ‘It was an emotional experience, with people shedding tears’, recalls Catherine M. Cahill, president and CEO of the center.

Five years later, the transformation is striking. Formerly known as the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, the venue was renamed when Highmark Inc., a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit healthcare company, became its title sponsor and secured exclusive naming rights. Located in Fairmount Park – one of the largest municipal park systems in the United States – the center, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has also undergone significant physical improvements, including a redesigned entry plaza with expanded guest amenities.

The TD Pavilion, the center’s main stage, now features a state-of-the-art sound system and new jumbo screens that enhance the concert experience for audiences seated on the Great Lawn. Visitors are greeted by a 4600-square-foot LED digital wall on the pavilion’s east side, intended to entertain as well as inform through a blend of technology, art, music and history.

The Declaration of Independence was adopted in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776. With the entire city, and indeed the country, focused on the 250th anniversary of that event, Highmark Mann chose to commemorate the occasion by highlighting the 1876 Centennial Exhibition and its own 50th anniversary. Throughout the summer, visitors will be greeted by a colorful, fanciful, informative and entertaining video installation on the digital wall celebrating the 1876 exhibition which was held in Fairmount Park, the very site where the Highmark Mann now stands.

That exhibition was the first official World’s Fair in the US and sought to showcase America’s rapid industrial and technological progress and stimulate international trade and global immigration. Ten million visitors, nearly a quarter of the US population, flocked there to experience technological innovations such as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and (for many Americans) to see and taste a banana for the first time. With memories of the Civil War still vivid, the exhibition was also intended to foster unity between Northern and Southern states. Of the eleven that made up the Confederacy, however, only Arkansas and Mississippi had official, state-funded buildings and exhibits.

Highmark Mann celebrated the multiple anniversaries with the world premiere of A Hundred Years On, an oratorio by composer Peter Boyer to a libretto by Mark Campbell with Anthony Parnther conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra. This was Boyer’s first venture into large-scale musical theater, while Campbell has written over 40 opera librettos. Two of his most notable efforts were the librettos for Silent Night by Kevin Puts and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs by Mason Bates.

Boyer and Campbell’s oratorio is not a historical account of the exhibition. They focus on five fictional visitors to the fair through whom they explore societal tensions in post-Civil War America that continue to resonate today. The structure is straightforward: the sixteen-movement work opens with an overture, followed by vocal ensembles, five character-defining arias and tuneful choruses, superbly sung by The Crossing, that capture the exhibition’s excitement and wonder while propelling the narrative forward.

Tazewell Thompson’s production is equally streamlined and effective. Visual interest comes from Millie Hiibel’s period costumes for the principals and chorus and Rasean Davonté Johnson’s video projections. These include historical maps of the exhibition site, photographs, visitors’ letters and digital projections that help anchor the story in its historical context.

As Amelia Dunning, soprano Mary Dunleavy rendered a touching portrayal of a mother grieving at the loss of her soldier son during the war. The lyrical lament was enriched by Dunning’s sensitivity in conveying the woman’s emotional conflict over a victory that exacted such a terrible price from so many. Tenor David Portillo as Horace Clark and the men of the chorus expressed curiosity and wonder about the miracle of communication pulsing through a thin little wire which Boyer captured brilliantly in short repetitive bursts of orchestral sound.

The Centennial Exhibition was the first world’s fair to have a building dedicated solely to women’s achievements in art, inventions and labor. To counter the notion that engineering was solely a male domain, it was powered by a steam engine operated by engineer Emma Allison, a marvel in her own right. It was also a platform for the women’s suffrage movement and allowed Meredith Lustig, as Susan McCormick, a Midwestern housewife, to give urgent, defiant voice to the cause.

A popular dining concession at the Centennial Exhibition was The Southern Restaurant, which garnered praise for its cleanliness and the civility of its waitstaff but was criticized for its overpriced and inauthentic food. As Ignatius Thomas, a Black waiter at the restaurant, Malcolm J. Merriweather’s smooth baritone captured the bitterness of a man who feigns subservience while mocking white society’s pretenses and tolerance for injustice.

At the time of the Centennial Exhibition, the Statue of Liberty was still under construction in France as a gift from the French people to the US. To raise money for its pedestal, which was the responsibility of the US, the arm and torch were displayed at the fair where visitors could pay 50 cents and climb a ladder inside the arm to the torch’s balcony. The money raised funded the pedestal, and the sculpture’s immense scale generated widespread public interest.

The final vignette of A Hundred Years On was of a Polish immigrant, Marion Jozwiak, contemplating her new home. With her magnificent mezzo-soprano, Eve Gigliotti offered a benediction of the America of her day which, despite its divisions and injustices, was a good land full of decent people.

Parnther led a performance of A Hundred Years On that was as polished and slick as the work itself. Given the size of the venue, the amplification of solo voices was a plus but it also lent a degree of homogeneity to the overall sound. A smaller venue would afford greater appreciation of the work’s textural and musical nuances. The oratorio succeeds on its own terms but there is a larger work lying beneath its surface. Campbell’s text is expertly crafted and Boyer set his words to music effectively. Given the constraints of the format, however, there is no character development of the five protagonists. You leave yearning to know more of their stories.

Julia Wolfe’s Liberty Bell also received its first performance at the concert. The real thing, which was cast in England, cracked on 22 February 1846 during a celebration of George Washington’s birthday and was permanently silenced. It is a foundational element of the American story and one of Philadelphia’s top tourist attractions. Musically, Parnther let Wolfe’s evocation of the Liberty Bell ring raucously in a barrage of chimes, pitched bell plates and large metal sheets. The Philadelphians played the piece’s complex rhythm with as much joy as precision.

The other three works on the program were likewise All-American fare. Although not on the program, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker led the orchestra in a rousing rendition of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, for which all stood but few sang. Parnther was on the podium for John Williams’s Liberty Fanfare, a boisterous, patriotic curtain-raiser which he composed to celebrate the Statue of Liberty’s 100th anniversary in 1986. Williams packs a lot into the brief work, including brass flourishes and his usual sweeping melodies.

It wouldn’t be a celebration of American patriotism without ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ by John Philip Sousa, ‘The March King’. The piccolos thrilled with their precision in the trio and the trumpets brought the patriotic fervor to a feverish pitch with their fanfares. It could have ended the concert but instead it primed the audience for A Hundred Years On.