Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 14 West Side Story

P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O May 3 - June 2, 2019 | 21 *Lyric debut Creators ARTHUR LAURENTS ( Librettist ) was for more than half a century one of America’s most distinguished gures in the arts. He moved in the theater between writing to directing, while also scoring great successes as a Hollywood screenwriter. Laurents began his career writing for radio, prior to the production of his rst Broadway play, Home of the Brave (1945). Other plays included A Clearing in the Woods (1957) and Invitation to a March (1960). Laurents’s association with composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim includes, in addition to West Side Story , the musicals Gypsy (book), Anyone Can Whistle (direction, book), and Do I Hear a Waltz? (book). He also directed several other Broadway musicals, including I Can Get It for You Wholesale in 1962, La Cage aux Folles in 1983 (for which he won a Tony Award), the 2008 revival of Gypsy, and the 2009 bilingual revival of West Side Story . Among his screenwriting credits are Rope (for Alfred Hitchcock), Anastasia, Bonjour Tristesse, e Way We Were , and e Turning Point . He wrote two memoirs, Original Story by Arthur Laurents and e Rest of the Story . He died in 2011. LEONARD BERNSTEIN ( Composer ) transformed the way Americans and people every- where hear and appreciate music. Bernstein’s successes as a composer ranged from Broadway ( West Side Story , On the Town , Wonderful Town , Candide ) to major concert works, such as his three symphonies – subtitled Jeremiah (1944), e Age of Anxiety (1949), and Kaddish (1963) – and Serenade for violin, strings and percussion (1954); Chichester Psalms (1965); Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971); Songfest (1977); Concerto for Orchestra: Jubilee Games (1989); and Arias and Barcarolles (1988). Bernstein also composed two operas, Trouble in Tahiti (1952) and A Quiet Place (1983), and three ballets, Fancy Free (1944), Facsimile (1946), and Dybbuk (1975). He received an Oscar nomination for the score of On the Waterfront (1954). Bernstein conducted the world’s greatest orchestras for almost half a century. He enjoyed special relationships with the New York Philharmonic (music director, 1958-69, thereafter permanent laureate conductor), the Israel Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Among Bernstein’s many honors were the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Gold Medal, a Kennedy Center Honor, 11 Emmy Awards, a special Tony Award, a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and the Japan Arts Association’s Praemium Imperiale. Bernstein died in 1990. STEPHEN SONDHEIM ( Lyricist ) wrote the music and lyrics for A Funny ing Hap- pened on the Way to the Forum , Anyone Can Whistle , Company , Follies , A Little Night Music , Sweeny Todd , e Frogs , Pacific Overtures , Merrily We Roll Along , Sunday in the Park with George , Into the Woods , Assassins, Passion , and Road Show, as well as lyrics for West Side Story , Gypsy , Do I Hear a Waltz?, and additional lyrics for Candide. Anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist include Side by Side by Sondheim , Marry Me a Little , You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow , Putting It Together, and Moving On . He composed lm scores for Stavisky and Reds, and songs for Dick Tracy (Academy Award). Sondheim has won six Tony Awards for best score for a musical, and eight of his shows have won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Sunday in the Park with George received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985. Sondheim was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983. In 1990 he was the rst Visiting Professor of Contemporary eatre at Oxford University. He has received a Kennedy Center Honor and the Praemium Imperiale, Japan’s highest honor, for a lifetime of artistic achievement. JEROME ROBBINS* ( Original Director and Choreographer ) began his career as a dancer, winning particular praise as a soloist at Ballet eatre (later known as American Ballet eatre). Once he ended his performing career, he achieved world renown as a choreographer of ballets, as well as for directing and choreographing in theater, movies, and televi- sion. His Broadway shows included On the Town , Billion Dollar Baby , High Button Shoes , West Side Story , e King and I , Gypsy , Peter Pan , Miss Liberty , Call Me Madam , and Fiddler on the Roof . His last Broadway production, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989), won six Tony Awards, including best musical and best director. Among Robbins’s more than 60 ballets are Fancy Free , Afternoon of a Faun , e Concert , Dances At a Gathering , Other Dances , Glass Pieces, and Ives, Songs , which are in the repertories of New York City Ballet and other major companies worldwide. Robbins received two Academy Awards, four Tony Awards, ve Donaldson Awards, an Emmy Award, the Screen Directors’ Guild Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. He was a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors recipient and was awarded the French Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur. Robbins died in 1998. Principals COREY COTT* ( Tony ), a graduate of Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, received criti- cal acclaim on Broadway for his performance in the Tony Award- winning musical Bandstand . He made his Broadway debut as Jack Kelly in Disney’s Newsies and played the role for two years, followed by the revival of Gigi star- ring opposite Vanessa Hudgens. On television, he appeared opposite Christina Ricci in the Amazon series Z: e Beginning of Everything and costarred alongside Hattie Morahan in the BBC/PBS mini- series My Mother and Other Strangers . He can also be seen in a recurring role on e Good Fight (CBS All Access). Other credits include e Interestings (Amazon pilot), Madam Secretary , Public Morals , Law and Order: SVU , and recently completed lm- ing a role in the new Fox pilot, Filthy Rich . A native of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Cott previously starred in Francesca Zambello’s staging of West Side Story in Concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at e Kennedy Center, conducted by Steven Reineke. He recently made his Carnegie Hall debut singing with the New York Pops. MIKAELA BENNETT* ( Maria ) is a graduate of e Juilliard School and is celebrated as a singer and actress for her work on stage and in the concert hall. In 2019 she was honored with a Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists. On stage, she made her professional debut starring as Penelope/ e Golden Apple at City Center Encores! She originated the role of Norma/ Renascence in Dick Scanlan and Carmel Dean’s new musical in New York City, and at the Prototype Festival she originated the title role/ Acquanetta in a new opera composed by Michael Gordon. In the concert hall she has made her debuts with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the John Wilson Orchestra (as Maria/ West Side Story, concert performance at the BBC Proms), the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and both the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic under Michael Tilson omas. She has also appeared as a soloist at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.