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When The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band turned
50—50!—in 2017, the city of Liverpool marked the occasion
with an ambitious, multidisciplinary festival honoring the
seminal album. Thirteen works—one for each track on the
recording—were commissioned to celebrate what is often
considered not just the finest achievement of Liverpool’s
beloved native sons—John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—but also the
greatest rock album of all time.
Leading off the festivities of “Sgt. Pepper
at 50” was Pepperland, a world premiere by
Mark Morris that captivated critics and
audiences alike. Performed by the Mark
Morris Dance Group (MMDG) and
set to a score by jazz artist Ethan
Iverson, the choreographer’s
former music director,
Pepperland was hailed as “a
truly joyous, celebratory work
of art” by the critic for The Telegraph, and
“a gorgeously entertaining and witty tribute” by the critic
for The Guardian. MMDG brings the
piece to Segerstrom Hall for three
performances, June 14–15.
Sgt. Pepper, says Morris, “was
abundant with new musical ideas; a
new kind of studio-born performance;
a never-before-heard confluence of
music world conventions; a witty, sad,
surprising, and moving musical trip. In a
fully staged, newly re-approached music and
dance show, we accept[ed] the challenge of presenting a
contemporary reading of this great artifact.”
The choreography abounds with Morris’ signature
musicality, waggishness, intelligence and inventiveness. Elizabeth
Kurtzman’s boldly colored costumes capture the essence of mod
Carnaby Street. “I think Mark realized early on that this piece wasn’t
just about The Beatles; it was about the swinging ’60s and the opening
up of a culture,” says Iverson. “He was a boy during that time, so he
remembers it. He’s just old enough to have seen The Beatles live one
time, and he was there for that great love-in of the late ’60s.”
The score, performed by an unusual chamber music ensemble of
Captures the Magic of The Beatles
Mark Morris Dance Group celebrates the 50th anniversary of an iconic album
BY SHERYL FLATOW
voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone and keyboards, features new
arrangements of the title song, “With a Little Help from My Friends,”
“When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Within You Without You,” “Penny Lane”
(which was planned for the original album but was issued earlier, as
a single) and “A Day In the Life,” intermingled with original pieces in
classical forms including Allegro, Scherzo, and Adagio.
“I listened to Sgt. Pepper a lot when I was in high school,” says
Iverson, a founding member of label-defying trio The Bad Plus.
“When Mark asked me to do this piece, I said yes with great joy
because I knew he’d do something special; it was not going to be a
Beatles cover event, which is the worst. I went and listened to the
record again and confirmed that it’s a masterpiece. But I also felt there
was potential for deconstruction and for a kind of fresh take on the
whole scenario. Mark and I didn’t talk too much about what the piece
would be, but he made a joke about how what people really want is
a sing-along, karaoke with a bouncing ball. That’s the danger. I’ve
seen so much where you try to rock out harder than the original with
nostalgia, and that’s the energy I sought to avoid.”
Iverson says that his longtime working relationship with Morris
gave him a “clear idea” of how to approach the score. “Mark is really
great with European classical music and finds ways to use that old
material in a fresh, American style,” he says. “Sgt. Pepper itself is very
informed by classical music. The anecdote I always cite is when Paul
McCartney saw Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on TV, and then
came in and told [producer] George Martin that he wanted a piccolo
trumpet solo in ‘Penny Lane.’ The structures of the songs on the album
are complicated. Bar bands can’t play Sgt. Pepper because the forms are
quite elaborate. That’s another kind of reference to classical music.”
George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” holds a special place
in the Pepperland score because its Indian-inspired sound reminded
Iverson of Morris’ major collaborations with the composer Lou
Harrison [no relation], whose compositions were infused with elements
of Eastern music. “Mark told me that ‘Within You Without You’ was
essentially the first time he’d been exposed to the classical music of
India. I felt that needed to be the centerpiece because I’ve seen so much
great Mark Morris dance with that Pan-Asian sensibility. Lou Harrison
was Mark’s composer, and ‘Within You Without You’ in my arrangement
is a bit of an homage to that classic Mark Morris-Lou Harrison
perspective. It’s also very hippies and ’60s, and Mark has that in his
work: Wouldn’t this be a better place if we just loved each other and let
everybody be. And that’s expressed in that song and in the dance.”
The Sgt. Pepper album cover is just about as iconic as the album
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Photo by Gareth Jones
itself. In the center are The Beatles, costumed in colorful band regalia
and standing next to another image of themselves from their early
days as the Fab Four. Behind them are dozens of images of celebrities
and historical figures. “Magna Carta,” the second movement of
Pepperland, is “a formal invocation of personalities from the LP cover,”
according to Iverson.
“One of the things I’ve seen Mark do when he’s working with a
lot of text on an opera or an oratorio is he’ll have the dancers take on
these characters for a moment,” says Iverson. “I thought, ‘Well, there
are a lot of characters on that cover.’ So I wrote a simple cue and said,
‘All right, pick whoever you want to be celebrated and presented to the
audience.’ And that’s what he did. It seemed important, because the
cover is part of the mythos of the LP.”
For all the exuberance in Pepperland, there are hints of rumblings
below the surface. “I think Pepperland is a joyous piece,” says Iverson.
“Audiences leap up at the end like they’re so happy to have been
there. At the same time, there’s not a song that doesn’t have a darker
undercurrent that’s brought out. I would say that’s why the piece is
successful. It isn’t just nostalgia, just pretty music that will make us all
feel so good about ourselves. In ‘When I’m Sixty-Four,’ for instance,
there’s certainly awkwardness and sadness. But if you think about it,
the song itself is sort of sad.
“One of the things I like to say about the art I really like is that
there’s something mysterious about it,” Iverson continues. “There is
mystery in Sgt. Pepper. The Beatles caught lightning in a bottle.”
Sheryl Flatow is a frequent contributor to Center publications.
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MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUPPEPPERLANDSEGERSTROM HALLDates: June 14 & 15Tickets: $29 and up
The Center’s International Dance Series is made possible by:Audrey Steele Burnand and The Segerstrom Foundation
For tickets and information visit SCFTA.org or call (714) 556-2787 Group services: (714) 755-0236
Photo by Robbie Jack
Fashion on London’s Carnaby Street, circa 1965.
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