I’m not sure there’s a more wonderful musical than Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” – and I wanted to include two of my favorite songs from that show on this program to highlight what I called the “unique pain” experienced by lovers whose relationship, for whatever reason, must remain clandestine. I’d never sung “We kiss in a Shadow” before, but I had sung “I have Dreamed” before – including a performance of it with the Racine Symphony Orchestra about a decade ago. My first performance of this, however, was back in the spring of 1978 when I sang it for that year’s Stage Show concert at Atlantic high School. My real introduction to this musical, however, came two years earlier when I played organ in the pit for AHS’s production. On that occasion, I absolutely fell in love with both this story and this score.
