Pacific Symphony to Honor Bernstein

As a tribute to his mentor, conductor Leonard Bernstein, who died Oct. 14, Pacific Symphony Music Director Carl St. Clair has added an excerpt from Bernstein’s “Arias and Barcaroles” to the Pacific’s programs Wednesday and Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

St. Clair conducted the entire work for an ailing Bernstein at a concert in Tanglewood, Mass., in August. The soloist in Costa Mesa will be soprano Carla Connors, reportedly scheduled to sing Susanna in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” with the New York City Opera in 1991.

Additionally, St. Clair has scheduled the Overture to Rossini’s “La gazza ladra” in place of the originally scheduled Prelude to Wagner’s “Die Mastersinger von Nurnberg.” The conductor says he made the change because he led the Rossini piece on tour with Bernstein in West Germany in 1989.