It's time once again for Helenans to come together and create that rainbow tapestry of picnic blankets across the Carroll College lawn and lean back to enjoy some beautiful music rising toward the stars.

This year's Symphony Under the Stars: "Some Enchanted Evening," is Saturday, July 18. The free concert offers music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, performed by the Helena Symphony and Chorale along with a few special guests.

The event also helps kick off Carroll College's centennial year celebration.

As usual, Symphony Music Director Allan R, Scott can barely contain his enthusiasm when he talks about the upcoming program.

"Rodgers and Hammerstein took the American songbook and turned it into American opera," Scott said.

For those who've pooh-poohed Rodgers and Hammerstein as mere makers of fluff show tunes, think again!

Their music earned 34 Tony Awards, 15 Oscars, two Grammys, two Pulitzers and two Emmys.

Music historians consider their musicals important not only for the beauty of the music, but also the emotional depth and psychological complexity of the plays.

They are credited for revolutionizing musical theater by closely tying the content of the songs and dances to advancing the story's plot and developing its characters.

They also grappled with topics that weren't typical fare in musicals n racism, class biases and domestic abuse.

Scott has picked a program of, what he calls Rodgers and Hammerstein's "much stronger works, conceptually, musically and artistically"-- including numbers from "Oklahoma!," "South Pacific," "Carousel," "Allegro" and one movement from "The King and I."

Joining the symphony and chorale will be some of the symphony's favorite guest soloists.

"All four of these (guests) are professional opera singers," Scott said, "and they love doing Rodgers and Hammerstein."

They include baritone Kevin Mathews, of Helena, who sang the part of Count Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro" in April; baritone Charles Robert Stephens, of Seattle, who sang with New York City Opera for 15 years and has sung in several of the Helena Symphony's performances of Handel's "Messiah;" soprano Anne Basinski, director of the University of Montana's Opera Theater who also performed here with solos in "Messiah;" and soprano Saundra DeAthos, who starred in "Figaro," as Susanna.

All of the singers are also actors, so part of Saturday's performance will include snatches of dialog from the plays, as well.

Listeners will hear numbers from "Allegro," one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's lesser-known works.

It's the tale of an "Everyman" protagonist, Dr. Joseph Taylor, Jr., who finds his wife is unfaithful and eventually returns to his home town to serve the sick and needy.

"'Allegro' is a wonderful work," said Scott. The symphony will perform a love duet, a ballad and the show stopper -- "What a Lovely Day for a Wedding," in which in-laws fling insults at each other.

Scott describes "Allegro" as being a rich mix of sarcasm, farce and irony.

"'South Pacific' is a real epic," Scott said. Based on two stories by James A. Michener from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Tales of the South Pacific," it's a story of war tearing people apart, racism, the breaking of old relationships and the building of new ones.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein adaptation,"South Pacific," won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950 and ran on Broadway for five years.

The second half of Symphony Under the Stars opens with the mysterious and longing "Bali Ha'i."

"The evening has some wonderful moments," said Scott. "That's why we're calling it 'Some Enchanted Evening.' "

There will also be favorites from "Carousel," Rodgers and Hammerstein's darkest play, which deals with domestic violence and class differences.

In it, carnival worker and petty crook Billy Bigelow is cornered while committing a crime and commits suicide. It's a story of redemption for Bigelow, his lover and their daughter who is born out of wedlock.

The song "'You'll Never Walk Alone' is a beautiful, wonderful and heart-warming moment, but it's not superficial," said Scott. "There are layers to these things. It has depth."

And, of course, there will be numbers from Rodgers and Hammerstein's first musical collaboration, "Oklahoma!" which one critic labeled America's "folk opera."

Expected to be a box office disaster because it defied all of the rules -- having no famous stars or gags -- the musical broke all box-office records -- running for five years and nine months on Broadway alone. It toured nationally for 10 years, reaching an audience of over 10 million.

So some enchanting evening of American classics is coming our way.

And the grand finale reaches for the heavens, indeed.

The spectacular fireworks we've all come to love will be accompanied this year, by "The Saints Go Marching In," honoring Carroll College's centennial celebration.

The annual free concert, now in its sixth year, is a gift from Carroll College and the Helena Symphony to the community. It's made possible by the contributions of many donors and businesses. Concert-goers, too, can help by dropping some money in the bucket when it passes through the crowd Saturday night.

And this year, the instrument "petting zoo" by the Helena Music Teachers Association returns from 5-7:30 p.m., allowing children of all ages to meet and try musical instruments.

In fact, it's the children who make for some of the most magical moments of the evening. For who hasn't seen an enraptured toddler leap to his feet to begin directing the orchestra from his picnic blanket?

If you go

Symphony Under the Stars, "Some Enchanted Evening n The Music of Rodgers and Hammerstein

• When: Saturday, July 18, 8:30 p.m.

Carroll College lawn

Instrument "petting zoo" from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

• Admission: Free general admission, or $20 for reserved seats

• More info: Bring your friends, your picnics and your blankets

But no plastic tarps, stakes or rocks, dogs or tobacco products

Picnic blankets can be spread out beginning Friday morning

Limited edition posters by Constance R. Bergum on sale at the concert and at the Helena Symphony office

• Contact: 442-1860