Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 14 West Side Story

D I R E C T O R ' S N O T 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 | 33 “Two households, both alike in dignity…” us begins Shakespeare’s tale of Romeo and Juliet , in which we see “ancient grudge break to new mutiny.” When Arthur Laurents rst conceived a modern, musical version of the play, he imagined a rivalry between Catholic and Jewish com- munities on the Lower East Side; only later did he and his collaborators move the story uptown, pitting a gang of native” New Yorkers against those more recently arrived. Although America is a country of immigrants, we continue to struggle with issues around immigration and migration, which makes West Side Story an important tale for today. (As Sondheim’s lyric neatly put it, “Nobody knows in America / Puerto Rico’s in America.”) e creators of West Side Story , although well-inten- tioned, didn’t get everything right; later critics have pointed out lapses into stereotype. ( is is true in so many “period pieces” that we put on the stage today, and as always, I look forward to the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about some of the thorny issues presented by the piece, both with my colleagues and with our audience members.) Lapses aside, by putting the trag- ic cost of two warring tribes center stage, the authors made an impor- tant statement about the human ten- dency to organize ourselves into fac- tions. Especially with the rise of social media, we have all become more tribal in our outlook. I think the story of two warring “tribes” challenges all of us to look at how we de ne and mar- ginalize “the other.” Perhaps we nd it easy to engage with people of di erent cultural backgrounds. But what about di erences in education? Religion? Resources? Politics? Leonard Bernstein scrawled “an out and out plea for racial tolerance” across the rst page of his copy of Romeo and Juliet . As we approach this piece in 2019, in the midst of a world immigration and refugee crisis, I hope we can make that plea reverberate in a new way. I also hope we can challenge ourselves to think broadly about ways in which we arbitrarily dismiss the experiences and opinions of those who are not like us. — Francesca Zambello A Message from the Director Anita (Gabrielle McClinton, in red) and the Shark girls in “America”: Francesca Zambello’s production, Houston Grand Opera. LYNN LANE/HOUSTON GRAND OPERA

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