Czech Philharmonic • A Love Song to Broadway

In the USA, Scarlett Strallen is best known for the title role in Broadway productions of Mary Poppins and for playing Sibella in a production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. She has also appeared on stage in the leading role of Nell Gwynn at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. In 2014 she received a Whatsonstage Award for best actress in a musical for her performance in A Chorus Line at London’s Palladium.

Besides singing in popular shows, she also performs with classical orchestras in emotional performances that blur the distinctions between genres. Her engagements have included the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, but she also appears in Europe regularly. She has performed at the BBC Proms with the John Wilson Orchestra, and she sang for the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II on three different occasions. Her film and television credits include the BBC production of Mary Poppins celebrating the queen’s 80th birthday.

“Number one among the shrinking ranks of wonderful actors in leading roles on Broadway.” That was a recent description of Hugh Panaro, who became famous primarily in the title role of the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera. He has appeared in that part more the 2,000 times and was even one of the few actors cast in the dual role of the Phantom and Raoul. Besides performing on Broadway, he has also appeared on the West End, at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, and at the Walnut Street Theater, where he earned the prestigious Barrymore Award for the role of Jean Valjean (Les Misérables). Among several other prizes, he has received the 2012 Edwin Forrest Award for his long-term contribution to the theatre.

Besides performing roles in musicals, Hugh Panaro is also heard on the concert stage, having appeared with the symphony orchestras in Cleveland and Seattle and with the New York Pops. His Carnegie Hall appearances have included a part in the premiere of Penderecki’s Te Deum. He won fame in Europe thanks in part to touring the continent with Barbra Streisand; the Czech public might still remember his repeated appearances at the Český Krumlov International Music Festival. 

For Czech Philharmonic fans, the American conductor Keith Lockhart probably comes to mind in connection with the traditional June open-air concerts on Hradčany Square – at the end of last season, Lockhart took the baton before the leading Czech orchestra on that occasion for the second time. He is the music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra and the artistic director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, but Czech audiences may associate him with four popular concerts given around the Czech Republic when in 2016 the Czech Philharmonic joined with him in presenting a programme titled The Best of Broadway, the very first concert of melodies from musicals that the Rudolfinum-based orchestra ever played.

Keith Lockhart was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and he began his music education with piano lessons at age seven. A graduate of Furman University majoring in both German and piano, he furthered his studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where his focus finally turned to conducting. He has now been the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra for nearly 30 years, since 1995. With that orchestra, he has given nearly 2,000 performances and has gone on 45 American tours visiting 150 cities. There were also four tours abroad. His full impact on America’s cultural life can also be seen in the 80 television broadcasts on which he has appeared, including performances at such major sporting events such as the American football championship (Super Bowl) and the NBA basketball finals. Each year on Independence Day (the Fourth of July), the orchestra attracts an audience of over half a million (along with millions more watching the live TV broadcast) for the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Not all of his American conducting legacy is connected with the Boston Pops Orchestra. For 11 years he was the music director of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, where his most visible performance was certainly at the opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Although most of Lockhart’s performing has been in North America (where one might say he has conducted nearly every orchestra), his activities in Europe have been by no means negligible. He has stood at the helm of such orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and from 2010 to 2018 he served as the principal guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, with which he took part in annual festival appearances at The Proms and in celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the orchestra’s founding. Also in 2012, the ensemble performed at a gala concert for Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II.