Lyricist Harburg honored in ‘Wizard of Verses’

LAKE WALLENPAUPACK, PA — Lacawac Sanctuary will host “The Wizard of Verses,” a Delaware Valley Opera Company presentation, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 21.

“The Wizard of Oz,” “Finnian’s Rainbow” and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” are just a few of many familiar titles presented in a program of Broadway and popular songs with lyrics by Yip Harburg. The distinguished area performers include pianist and director Jim Blanton, mezzo soprano Carol Diefenbach, soprano Jody Weatherstone and bass baritone Eric Barsness. Breathing new life into “hit” songs from the not-so-distant past, the performers delight audiences young and old with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “April in Paris” and many more favorites by the master wordsmith. For those who find today’s music a bit “shocking,” Blanton’s rendition of “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” proves that pushing the musical envelope did not begin with songs from the 1960s.

Romance, comedy and dreams abound in the lyrics of Yip Harburg, whose prolific output spanned the 1930s into the 1970s. Collaborating with such composers as George Gershwin, Harold Arlen and Burton Lane, Harburg became famous in the Hollywood, Broadway and popular music realms. He lived not only in New York and Beverly Hills, but resided for a while in nearby Deerpark, NY, where he wrote the lyrics to his first hit, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”

For more information email educator@lacawac.org or call 570/689-9494.