West Side Story 2021

 

	1961	2021
Tony	Richard Beymer (voice:  Jimmy Bryant)	Ansel Elgort
Maria (Bernardo's sister)	Natalie Wood (voice:  Marni Nixon)	Rachel Zegler
Anita (Bernardo's girlfriend)	Rita Moreno (voice:  Betty Wand)	Ariana DeBose
Bernardo (head Shark)	George Chakiris	David Alvarez
Riff (head Jet)	Russ Tamblyn (voice:  Tucker Smith)	Mike Faist
Officer Krupke	William Bramley	Brian d'Arcy James
Lieutenant Schrank	Simon Oakland	Corey Stoll
Doc's shop keeper	Ned Glass as Doc	Rita Moreno as Valentina

These are comparative cast lists for the two movie versions of Bernstein's West Side Story.  The lyrics are by Sondheim.  All the main roles were dubbed in the 1961 movie while none were in the new one.  Voice:  means the name of the person who is actually singing.  I was fascinated to see Rita Moreno sang here but was dubbed in the earlier version.  Curious.  After all, Rita has a Grammy.

If you were paying attention, at the very beginning they are talking about urban renewal in that part of New York City and show a photo of Lincoln Center which opened in 1962.  The film showed street signs from that neighborhood.  So there was a slum there before it was torn down.  I liked all the old cars seen parked in the street.  This is my era, apparently.

I enjoyed this remake and found it very emotional.  The dancing was top quality and very professional, but the same cannot be said for the singing.  Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if the volume was turned up a bit.  The singing wasn't bad, just insignificant.  Live in the theater it would be louder because the cast would be chosen partly for their singing and then amplified. 

There was a lot of untranslated Spanish with quite a lot of "Speak English" remarks.  I only know tiny bits of Spanish.  The story was darker and more violent.

In my review of West Side Story at the Sacramento Music Circus I said, "The way the production looks is how the story is told.  One group runs quickly off the stage and is replaced by another.  'Who are these people?' is a question that should be instantly answered." It was at the Music Circus, but it was not here.  It was no easy trick to tell the two groups apart.  I found this a particular problem.

Tony loses his cool for a moment and changes everything.  This is the heart of the story.  One should see it again.  Don't miss this.  The young man who plays Tony is particularly beautiful.

West Side

Last week I went to the Music Circus to see Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.  I only remember seeing the movie before.  It's another show with lots of dancing.  The director and choreographer was Jerome Robbins.

Tony:  Justin Matthew Sargent
Maria:  Carolann M. Sanita
Bernardo:  German Alexander
Anita:  Desireé Davar,

Everything is very heavily miked which I'm not used to.  There are no supertitles, and since it's theater in the round, they are frequently facing away from you.  The pace is frantic and intense which I think people who enjoy musicals like.  St. Louis does opera in the round but with supertitles.

I was discussing this with my neighbor who said she saw it with a friend that is Puerto Rican.  Her friend complained about the clothing and the accents.  Puerto Ricans don't actually wear red and black all the time.

I feel it is important to explain this.  Theater and reality are two widely different things.  In real life people just wear what they wear and look the way they look.  If you are old enough to have lived in New York at the time--it premiered in 1957--you might know what people looked like in that time and place.  I vaguely recall button down collars, petticoats.  The purpose for putting them in consistently colored clothing isn't to accurately portray them--it is to clearly differentiate them from the New York kids in the rival gang who wore oddly pastel clothes.  When I go to a show, I don't like to be spending my time trying to figure out who each person is.  That's what the production is for.

The way the production looks is how the story is told.  One group runs quickly off the stage and is replaced by another.  "Who are these people?" is a question that should be instantly answered.  I always remember the Aida in Rome where the principals and the chorus all wore similarly designed outfits.  Which one is Radames?  Constant puzzlement is not a desirable quality in a production.

A theater production isn't trying to be a movie, although the use of films as background is increasing.

West Side Story

To commemorate the announcement that Cecilia Bartoli will sing Maria in West Side Story at next year's Pfingstfest in Salzburg I present the film where Cher sings all the parts.



Perhaps Cecilia can get Cher to do Anita, the only part she seems actually suited for. In my imagination I see this part done by Liliana Nikiteanu.

For My Brahms Soul

 

This is a wonderful performance.  Bernstein's accompaniment is especially surprising. If you look closely, you will see Andre Previn pop in to turn the page.  "Vergiss nicht mein."  I kneel.

Composers

Gian Carlo Menotti

Someone posted a hot composers list, so I decided to do one myself.   I've tried not to duplicate any pictures.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Leonard Bernstein

Johannes Brahms

Franz Liszt

Richard Strauss

Robert Schumann

Antonio Vivaldi

Frederic Chopin

Vicenzo Bellini

Richard Wagner

Kaija Saariaho

Computer generated Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Gustav Mahler

Trouble

Last night Opera Parallèle presented Samuel Barber’s Hand of Bridge and Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti at Z Space in San Francisco.  To date I have loved everything they did, (see here, here and here) but not this time.  Most of what I didn't like had to do with Z Space.  Like it or not, the audience for opera is old people.  Two different audience members fell down trying to get to their seats.  If you insist on staying in this venue, I predict a law suit in your future.  The acoustics were not good.  The orchestra was positioned to the side of the stage with no shielding.  I think a screen between the orchestra and the audience would have been helpful.  Any kind of pit muffles the orchestra at least a bit.  Here there was no pit and a lot of reverb, not a good combination.  Z Space is probably cheaper than the place in Yerba Buena Center, but I will not go there again.

Trouble in Tahiti began its life as a stand alone one act opera in 1952.  This was the version presented here.  Later, in 1983, it was first presented as the opener for a one act version of A Quiet Place.  Then a year later it was swallowed whole by a three act version of A Quiet Place.  Just so you know.  Trouble is legitimately presented by itself.  We did it at my college in 1958.

These two operas are basically the world before Betty Friedan.  Some of us lived then.  The sexes are still battling, but the rules have changed. 

Operas are full of projections these days.  They faked an entire movie of people on Tahiti, complete with a rescuing navy.  It was funny but very much too complex and distracting from the characters of the opera.  I liked the atmospheric stuff, like the cigarette ads, but not the movie.  This is a gross generalization:  the opera is about the people singing.  Try to remember that.  What I imagine is that this opera was found to be tedious, and the fake movie was intended to make it more interesting.  It was a futile effort.

Baritone Eugene Brancoveanu (Sam) and mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez (Dinah) played the main characters in both operas.  They are excellent singers and fully up to the challenge of a loud orchestra.

Conductor/Artistic Director Nicole Paiement
Stage Director Brian Staufenbiel

Mass, the Musical

Sometimes I buy CD's in stores.  I realize this is extremely retro.  Marin Alsop's recording of Bernstein's Mass caught my eye.  I was, of course, around when this piece first made its appearance, and I read the commentary.  I just never heard the piece.  No one I knew was rushing out to perform it.

Michael Tilson Thomas and Marin Alsop are Bernstein's musical children, in a way. I rented Candide from Netflix in my first year of blogging and failed to mention that Marin Alsop was conducting that, too.

I don't think I expected what I am hearing. The style is pure Bernstein. I'm glad I never heard it in another version. What you want from a composer is that he is always himself. The piece is also pure Bernstein. Life and love flow out in passionate bursts. "Take a look. Under this there is nothing but me." Yes. The musical of Leonard Bernstein.

Lennie and I both know the mass from our musical lives. We sort of remember what the words are and we sort of remember what they mean. We both know that the Hebrew service includes a "holy, holy, holy," too--he sticks that in. He free associates from the mass, puts in pretty much anything he remembers that is in Latin. Sometimes he starts out with the right words and wanders off into something else before the movement is over.

Jubilant Sykes is the celebrant, rather more of a cantor than anything else. He is our thoughts as we experience the mass. In the old days the priest stood with his back to us and muttered a bunch of stuff. Maybe he was talking about how wine is more of a brown than red.

It isn't exactly religion. But it is completely, joyfully Leonard Bernstein. The mass has ended. Go in peace.
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Candide

Tiny conversation while going in to see Candide:
B. I should have worn something shiny.
U. Why is that?
B. You know. Glitter and be gay.
U. Not to worry. In the best of all possible worlds just wear what you want.

What a day. Sunday in the Park with George followed by Candide at the New York City Opera. Sondheim and Bernstein worked together on West Side Story, and I read in the paper that Sondheim helped with one of the revisions to Candide. Their work is not unrelated, but as artists they're very different.

For one thing Bernstein is a far better composer and has a lark going around the world with Candide doing styles of music for the different cultures he visits. The music is lively and fun, but perhaps the world is still not ready for Voltaire.

The musical Candide is based on Voltaire's novel Candide which is in turn based on the philosophy that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire goes to great lengths to ridicule the idea and completely fails. I get the feeling Bernstein understands the purpose of optimism, was himself a great optimist, and moves his characters cheerfully from one disaster to another. Perhaps it's his fault the whole thing is so unrelentingly optimistic.

I think the failure of Candide is due to its level of sophistication. Are we ready to ridicule the inquisition? I'm not sure we are. And what is one to make of a guiding philosophy where we build our house and make our garden grow?

How far from that is George Seurat's daughter who wishes us to have babies and make art? Great-grandchild George is advised not to worry about success but just to go on following his vision.

I am entertained by Bernstein, but I am genuinely challenged by Sondheim. Art lies not in the money, modern life's only preoccupation, but in the vision.

Candide

My latest DVD from Netflix is Candide by Leonard Bernstein.

This is my first experience of Candide, except for the book by Voltaire, of course. It hasn't quite made the transition from novel to opera/operetta and requires a narrator to keep it going. It calls itself an operetta and the songs are operetta-like. I'm used to edgier Bernstein, prefer edgier Bernstein.

It almost works. It's more of a morality tale or mystery play than a musical. We live in the best of all possible worlds. I have always noticed that according the logic at work here, we also live in the worst of all possible worlds. It's what we've got, so just go with it. Build your house, chop your wood, grow your garden. Why can't I picture either Voltaire or Bernstein doing any of these things? I am left wishing for more.