Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 14 West Side Story

M U S I C A L N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O • the equivalent of Shakespeare’s “balcony scene” happens on a re escape; • although the lovers don’t have a modern-day Friar Laurence to marry them, they do exchange vows on their own in the bridal shop where Maria works; • a confrontation between the gangs results in their leaders’ deaths: Ri (counterpart of Shakespeare’s Mercutio) is killed by Bernardo (Tybalt), Maria’s brother, and the enraged Tony (Romeo) – who’d formerly been a member of the Jets – kills Bernardo. Laurents’s ending departs from Shakespeare, which must have stunned 1950s audiences, accustomed in musicals to seeing con icts happily resolved in time for the nale. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet both commit suicide, but in West Side Story only Tony dies – shot by Chino, Bernardo’s vengeful friend. e gang members are bit- terly castigated by Maria, who accuses them all of Tony’s murder. It’s clear that their feud has now ended, but one wonders whether the young but disillusioned and emotionally scarred Maria will ever nd love again. e show progresses seamlessly from one scene to the next, with ve extended dance sequences beautifully integrated into the drama. e dances begin with the young men of the Prologue; with both arms and one leg outstretched as they strut down a New York street, they present one of the most recognizable images from any American musical. Created by Robbins (with the great show dancer Peter Gennaro as his uncredited co-choreographer), the original West Side Story choreography remains enthralling today, whether the Jets, the Sharks, and their girlfriends mambo-ing in an explosion of incendiary sexual electric- ity in “ e Dance at the Gym”; Anita and her cheeky sidekicks in “America” (Bernstein, inspired by a particular Mexican folk dance, marked the music “tempo di huapango”); Ri urging his anxious Jet buddies to stay “Cool,” in the show’s most overtly jazzy number; and the touching ballet that leads into “Somewhere,” midway in Act Two. Bernstein’s universally beloved score is arguably the greatest of his career. Early in the show, breathless alterations between hushed eagerness and all-out exu- berance support Tony’s premonition that “something’s coming.” Later, his joyous repetitions of his new love’s name (“Maria”) illuminate that name through the melodic line’s eloquent use of the tritone. e Latin rhythms of Maria’s “I Feel Pretty” sparkle, the ideal expression of her irresistible girlish- ness. e audience follows her star-crossed romance with Tony from the delicate, lumi- nous cha-cha in the orchestra accompanying their rst dance to the combination of impetuosity and tenderness in “Tonight,” the quiet serenity of “One Hand, One Heart,” and the lovers’ desperate, anguished phrases preceding the “Somewhere” ballet (the song itself, assigned in the original pro- duction to Consuelo, one of the Shark girls, is sung by Maria in Lyric’s production.) In the wild amboyance of “America” we’re captivated by the worldly, deliciously sarcastic Anita. Later, after Bernardo – who had been her ancé – is killed by Tony, Anita berates Maria in the scathing “A Boy Like at” (to which Maria responds with sweet restraint in “I Have a Love”). Bernardo has no song of his own, but Ri dominates both the “Jets’ Song” and “Cool.” Together those numbers depict a fearless, charismatic troublemaker who gives new meaning to the adjective “streetwise.” Midway in Act Two, the Jets – now without their murdered leader – provide the show’s only episode of genuine hilarity in “Gee, O cer Krupke,” their endearingly obnoxious justi cation of their own delinquency. Bernstein had no objection to opera (he’d written a successful one, Trouble in Tahiti , just ve years earlier), but a purely operatic West Side Story wasn’t his aim, as he admitted when summing up the challenge facing him and his colleagues: Chief problem: to tread the ne line between opera and Broadway, between realism and poetry, ballet and “just dancing,” abstract and representational. Avoid being “messagy.” e line is there, but it’s very ne, and sometimes takes a lot of peering around to discern it. 3 In rehearsal for the rst production of West Side Story : left to right, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, librettist Arthur Laurents, co-producer Harold Prince, co-producer Robert E. Gri th (seated), composer Leonard Bernstein, and director/choreographer Jerome Robbins. Leonard Bernstein at the time of West Side Story . FRIEDMAN ABELES, BILLY ROSETHEATRE DIVISION, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AL RAVENNA/COURTESY OFTHE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LEONARD BERNSTEIN OFFICE 30 | May 3 - June 2, 2019