Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 14 West Side Story

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O May 3 - June 2, 2019 | 35 LYNN LANE/HOUSTON GRAND OPERA West Side Story After the Curtain Falls Your musical-theater experience doesn’t have to end here! When the performance is over, you can continue your exploration of West Side Story in conversation with your companions: • How did you respond to the unusually strong emphasis on dance in this show? How do the dance sequences enhance the drama? • What song did you enjoy the most? • Bernstein didn’t intend to compose an opera, but are there any moments in the music that actually seem operatic to you? • If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , are there any scenes in the play for which you wish Bernstein, Sondheim, and Laurents had created equivalents in the musical? • Of the six principal characters, Bernardo is the only one we don’t hear doing any major singing. If you were going to create a song for him, what do you think it would be about? • If you’ve seen both the musical and the film version of West Side Story , which do you prefer and why? To continue enjoying West Side Story , Lyric dramaturg and program editor Roger Pines suggests the following performances: CD: Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert, Chita Rivera, Mickey Calin; cond. Max Goberman (Sony Classics – original Broadway cast) CD: Alexandra Silber, Cheyenne Jackson, Jessica Vosk, Kevin Vortmann; San Francisco Symphony, cond. Michael Tilson omas (SFS Media) CD: Tinuke Ola mihan, Paul Manuel, Caroline O’Connor, Nicholas Warnford; National Symphony Orchestra, cond. John Owen Edwards (TER/Jay Productions) DVD: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn; cond. Johnny Green, dir. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (MGM) ALSO OF INTEREST: Musicals composed by Leonard Bernstein CD: On the Town – John Reardon, Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Nancy Walker (Columbia) CD: Wonderful Town – Alysha Umphress, Danielle de Niese, Nathan Gunn (LSO Live) CD: Candide – Robert Rounseville, Barbara Cook, Irra Petina (Masterworks Broadway – Original Broadway cast) Operas composed by Leonard Bernstein CD: Trouble in Tahiti – Rod Gilfry, Kim Criswell (BR Klassik) DVD: Trouble in Tahiti – Karl Daymond, Stephanie Novacek (Opus Arte) CD: A Quiet Place – Claudia Boyle, Joseph Kaiser, Lucas Meachem (Decca Classics) Other musicals with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim CD: Gypsy – Ethel Merman (Masterworks Broadway) Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for: CD: Anyone Can Whistle – Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury (Masterworks Broadway) CD: A Funny ing Happened on the Way to the Forum – Zero Mostel (Hallmark) CD: Company – Dean Jones, Elaine Stritch (Masterworks Broadway) CD: Follies – Jan Maxwell, Bernadette Peters, Ron Raines, Danny Burstein (P. S. Classics) CD: Into the Woods – Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason (Masterworks Broadway) DVD: Into the Woods – Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason (Image Entertainment) DVD: Into the Woods – Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt (Disney) Films with screenplays by Arthur Laurents DVD: e Way We Were – Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) DVD: Anastasia – Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes (20th Century Fox) Maria (Andrea Carroll) meets Tony (Norman Reinhardt) during the dance at the gym: West Side Story at Houston Grand Opera, 2018.