Dimitri Mitropoulos / Grey Gardens

On this day in classical music: Greek conductor and composer Dimitri Mitropoulos died at age 64 while rehearsing Mahler’s “Symphony No. 3” with Milan’s La Scala Orchestra. After working in Athens and Berlin, Mitropoulos made his U.S. debut in 1936 with the Boston Symphony. He was music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1949. Mitropoulos then served as co-conductor of the New York Philharmonic (with Leopold Stokowski) and became music director in 1951. Listen to Mitropoulos and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra perform the “Intermezzo” from Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9-5rYHxrDk

On this day in the musical theatre: Following a successful off-Broadway run, the musical “Grey Gardens” opened on Broadway in 2006. “Grey Gardens” was based on a 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles that told the story of the reclusive socialites Edith Bouvier Beale — mother and daughter — who lived in a rundown mansion in East Hampton, New York. With a book by Doug Wright and a score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, “Grey Gardens” portrayed the Beales in their heyday (Act I was set in 1941), and in their decline (Act II was set in 1973). Both Christine Ebersole (as the daughter) and Mary Louise Wilson (as the mother) won Tony Awards for their riveting portrayals. Watch Ebersole perform “The Revoloutionary Costume for Today” at the 2007 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdh8EoYoAoM

Musical musings: “Da-da-da-da-dum.” Not exactly a phrase that gleams with Shakespearean eloquence, is it? But once you’ve heard Christine Ebersole sing it — and believe me, this is an experience no passionate theatergoer should miss — “da-da-da-da-dum” is guaranteed to enter your personal memory bank of cherished quotations, the kind you summon when you’re feeling down and thwarted and need to smile. There is another phrase, by the way, in addition to the immortal “da-da-da-da-dum,” that I can’t get out of my head. This one is two words, “Oh, God,” and Ms. Ebersole sings them in her climactic number, “Another Winter in a Summer Town,” with a layering of despair, rebellion and surrender that becomes a heartbreaking epitaph for an entire life. Watching this performance is the best argument I can think of for the survival of the American musical. – Ben Brantley in The New York Times

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