Kennedy Centre comes to life

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32708, 10 September 1971, Page 11

Kennedy Centre comes to life

<NZ.P_4.-R«ut«r—Copyriohej WASHINGTON, September 9. The United States capital finally swept into the “cultural age” last night, with the spectacular opening of the SUS7Om John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, the New York Times News Service reports.

The rich, celebrated and powerful of America flocked to the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's “Mass” in the centre’s gigantic marble temple. The Kennedy family filled the choicest boxes in the centre’s opera house, led by its matriarch, Mrs Joseph Kennedy. Her only surviving son. Senator Edward Kennedy, was with her, along with his wife, Joan: the composer, Aaron Copland; the Mayor of the capital city (Mr Walter Washington), and Mrs Washington; and the Bernsteins. Only Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the widow of. the assassinated President after whom the centre has been named, was not there to hear the premiere of the work she had requested from Bernstein. She broke her promise to attend only last week, after

I being mobbed, and “exI tremely frightened,” by en- ■ thusiastic admirers in Poland. ; Described as “a theatre piece for singers, dancers : and players,” the Mass lasted almost two hours and inI eluded a cast of 200. i Thirteen years after an Act ' of Congress created the openi ing wedge for “a national cul- ; tural centre” and seven years ■ after building began, it has ; at last come to life. And. the opening weeks of ! the Kennedy Centre offer a - mouth-watering smorgasbord ;of premieres in grandly- • suitable settings, in contrast to Washington’s dreary nis- ■ tory in the performing arts. Tonight, the centre’s coni' cert hall will be tested bei fore the President, with a • performance by the National : Symphony Orchestra. Next ■ month the Eisenhower Theatre will make its debut • with Ibsen’s “A Doll’s ■ House.”