Ted Sperling Returns to Myths and Hymns

As a boy of five or six, Ted Sperling attended a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera. Amongst its cast was a young boy soprano making his debut as a genie. Little did that singer, Adam Guettel, or Sperling know what the future held in store for them.

“The Magic Flute hit me at that sweet spot,” says Sperling in a Zoom call earlier this week. “I was at the right age to enjoy the spectacle and that spectacular music.”

Guettel became a Tony Award-winning composer of Broadway musicals and Sperling is the Tony Award-winning orchestrator of Guettel’s most recent show, The Light in the Piazza. That musical was their third collaboration. Sperling also worked on Guettel’s 1996 musical Floyd Collins and his song cycle Saturn Returns (which had its debut at The Public Theater in 1998).

When Saturn Returns was released on record in 1999 it had a new name: Myths and Hymns. Sperling returned to to the work this year with a four-part digital series of films of each song of the cycle. For Sperling this was the best way of keeping MasterVoices, the New York choral ensemble for which he serves as Artistic Director, functioning and relevant during the pandemic.

His collaboration with Guettel was not an accident. It was by design.

“Certainly working with Adam has been a highlight of my career and it was something I really sought out,” revealed Sperling. “I made a conscious decision after working as an assistant conductor on Broadway shows written by composers one or two generations before me, that the next step was to work with my peers – people my age who were creating exciting new work.

“I lobbied a little bit to work with Adam and [director] Tina Landau on Floyd Collins. I was thrilled when they invited me on board and that was one of the happiest experiences of my life. With Floyd, Saturn Returns and The Light in the Piazza, those three shows over a fairly short span of time are a huge part of my life.”

When the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020-2021 MasterVoices season, Sperling had to figure out quickly what to do in place of concerts.

“The question was what could we do from our homes that would sustain an audience’s interest on a computer,” he said. “My first impulse was to take a Rossini chorale masterwork, one of the pieces we were going to do. I thought that would be amazing and maybe we’ll still do that. But I thought it was a big ask for audience to sit at home and listen to a long work like that that didn’t tell a story, but was beautiful.”

Ultimately he returned to the work of his friend and collaborator.

“Saturn’s return loosely is supposed to be a moment of reflection, a moment of change, a moment of possibilities. It’s time for a new orbit in the next 28 years of your life.* Adam’s work is a journey, a hero’s journey and mythical journey. While the songs are not literal, for me they go through a journey of four different avenues to try to recover happiness.”

Having landed on the right material, Sperling had to figure out the best way to realize it for viewers who were going to be watching his endeavors at home and not in a concert hall. For inspiration he went back to the work’s beginning.

“I very explicitly parceled Myths and Hymns into four chapters – which was something we used as an organizing principle at the Public Theater production, but never said out loud. There’s also part of the nature of this piece, having gone through several workshops and seeing productions after ours, this is a piece that is going to change every time you see it. It felt wide open to interpretation for the screen.”

This meant bringing in various artists as performers, directors and visual artists.

“From the very beginning I thought of this work kaleidoscopically; that the idea would be that every piece would be different from the ones around it. I was hoping that people would be surprised and delighted.”

So far they have been. MasterVoices is easily reaching far more people through this project than any single concert or even a concert season could accomplish.

But what about Guettel? The Light in the Piazza opened 16 years ago this month. That’s an awfully long time without a new musical. Sperling suggests, to paraphrase Hannibal Lecter, that all good things to those who wait.

“Once stuff gets back on the boards there will be a bit of a flood,” he predicts. “I think he’s been working very hard during this time. There may be three or four shows in quick succession.

“I think shows take longer to write than they used to. It’s not uncommon for shows to take four-to-eight years. I think Adam’s written four shows during this time, so he’s right on schedule.”

On May 26th the fourth and final chapter of Myths and Hymns will be unveiled. So what does the success of this series mean for the future of MasterVoices?

“It’s a very good question and one I’m wrestling with. It’s hard when you do something you feel really great about; that you’ve set a new benchmark and you have to surpass that next time. I think I’m just going to try to learn from this and see how I can apply some of these wonderful experiences I’ve had to live experiences and maybe find a way to present some things online or in some hybrid form.

“I’m just going to try to expand the creative family that is MasterVoices. Always in my mind is that the MasterVoices was not just our chorus, but all the people we collaborate with: the voices of the composers, the voices of the lyricists, the voices of the soloists, the creative voices of our designers and creators and choreographers. This piece has given me the latitude to work with people from all over and all kinds of disciplines, so I’m hoping we’ll just continue to expand what the MasterVoices family is.”

Perhaps Sperling need look no further than the lyrics in Migratory V from Myths and Hymns:

A single voice in whispered prayer
Can only pray to travel there.
But all as one,
We sound the everlasting sound
And sing our salvation.

Myths and Hymns Chapter One: Flight can be seen here.

Myths and Hymns Chapter Two: Work can be seen here.

Myths and Hymns Chapter Three: Love can be seen here.

Myths and Hymns Chapter Four: Faith will debut on May 26th.

*In astrology it takes 28-30 years for Saturn to go through all twelve signs of the zodiac

Photo: Ted Sperling (Courtesy MasterVoices)