It’s headlined “S-E-X Marches On,“ which should grab readers’ attention, but the American Classics concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 18 at First Parish on the Common presents many familiar love songs by beloved musical theater notables of the past along with a song by contemporary composer Jake Heggie.
Heggie (born 1961), a leading figure in today’s musical world, is known for hundreds of compositions- 10 full length operas, 300 art songs, and chamber music and orchestral works. His opera “Dead Man Walking,” opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-24 season. The Heggie song that American Classics soprano Sarah Kornfeld will sing is “Animal Passion,” from his collection “Natural Selection.” The first line of this passionate song, “fierce as a bobcat’s spring,” gives an inkling of the poem by Gina Savage that Heggie set to music.
The concert’s title comes from a song in Irving Berlin’s musical “Louisiana Purchase,” a Broadway hit from 1940. Among the 20-plus numbers the ensemble will sing are such favorites as “Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered” from Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart’s “Pal Joey” and “I Wish I Were in Love Again” from Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart’s “Babes in Arms,” along with a song “Kate the Great,” that dropped from Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.”
The late Stephen Sondheim is represented by “Ev’rybody Oughta Have a Maid” from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
American Classics founders Brad Conner and Ben Sears will be joined by singers Sarah Kornfeld, Christina English, Michelle Deluise, and Ethan Sagin. Pianist Steve Sussman is the accompanist.
Prior to the First Parish performance on Sunday, this American Classics concert will also take place at First Church, Garden Street, Cambridge at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors/students. To order online: www.amclass.org. Tickets are available at the door.
Both venues are wheelchair accessible.
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