Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

actor James Cagney, dancer/choreographer Agnes de Mille, actress Lynn Fontanne, and soprano Leontyne Price as honorees. As a special musical gift to her father on that oc- casion, Bernstein’s oldest daughter Jamie collaborated with David Pack (founding member of the rock group Ambrosia and a Grammy-winning record producer) in writ- ing a loving tribute song, “Thank You for the Big Heart.” Pack later recalled their work to- gether: “At LB’s request, I listened to and was blown away by his daughter Jamie’s songwrit- ing skills. Musically, Jamie and I clicked in every way, and I was thrilled to help produce and develop her career for several years.” LEONARD BERNSTEIN “My New Friends” from The Madwoman of Central Park West Actress Phyllis Newman was a well-estab- lished Broadway star—she received the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Martha Vail in Jule Styne’s Subways Are for Sleeping , edg- ing out 19-year-old Barbra Streisand in her Broadway debut as Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It for You Wholesale —when she con- ceived and co-wrote with Arthur Laurents a one-woman musical about the challenges an aging actress faces as wife, mother, and pro- fessional. Newman’s own experiences as the wife of Broadway lyricist Adolph Green and the mother of their two children, Amanda and Adam, provided ample material for this loosely semiautobiographical show. The musical opened off-Broadway under the title My Mother Was a Fortune Teller at the Hudson Guild Theater on May 5, 1978, and ran for 24 performances. Extensive revi- sions took place at the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, NY. Under a new title, The Mad- woman of Central Park West , the musical opened at Broadway’s 22 Steps Theatre on June 13, 1979. Despite a strong pre-opening media campaign, the show never recovered from mixed (though largely negative) re- views, and it closed on August 25, 1979, after 85 performances. Newman and Laurents assembled their mu- sical score from individual numbers by a ce- lebrity list of composers and lyricists, among them Betty Comden and Adolph Green, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Barry Manilow, Mary Rodgers, Carol Bayer Sager, and Stephen Sondheim. Leonard Bernstein contributed two songs: the opening number, “Up! Up! Up!,” with lyrics by Comden and Green, and the closing number, “My New Friends,” for which he wrote both music and lyrics. Selections from Candide Candide was Leonard Bernstein’s flawed masterpiece. This slow-evolving piece of mu- sical theater began life as Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of a play by Voltaire, the “father of the French Revolution.” Hellman suggest- ed the comic satire Candide as an unflattering allegory for the anti-Communist crusade led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, from which America was only recently emerging. The merciless McCarthyist crusades affected Hellman directly when she was summoned before the HUAC to explain her visit to the Soviet Union, alleged Communist activi- ties, and romantic relationship with Dashiel Hammett (a suspected Communist, who por- trayed Sam Spade on the radio). Hellman proposed the production to Bern- stein in September 1950, but the busy com- poser/conductor/pianist did not consent to “having a fling” with Candide for four more years. This “comic operetta” experienced a difficult gestation while Hellman wrote at her typically slow pace, Bernstein worked on his film score to On the Waterfront and began West Side Story , and the whole production went through a series of lyricists: John La Touche, Dorothy Parker, and finally Richard Wilbur, with adaptations by Bernstein and Hellman. (Stephen Sondheim contributed lyrics to later productions.) After a tryout at Boston’s Colonial Theater, Candide opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater on December 1, 1956. The show ran for a disappointing 73 performances. Critics recognized Candide ’s conceptual bril- liance, but audiences found the production too erudite and confusing. Over the past four decades, there have been numerous revivals and revisions, several in direct collaboration with Bernstein. The overture immediately conjures an opti- mistic atmosphere with its preview of select- ed themes from the operetta. The young man Candide is betrothed to the lovely ingenue Cunegonde. Dr. Pangloss philosophizes that “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds,” a rather naive statement immedi- ately challenged by a series of misfortunes: Cunegonde’s alleged death, a death sentence imposed upon Candide and Dr. Pangloss by the Inquisition, the death of Pangloss, slavery, Robert Rounseville and Barbara Cook in the 1956 stage production of Candide shipwreck, and poverty. In Paris, a mysterious beauty becomes the shared consort of Don Issachar (a rich Jew) and the Cardinal Arch- bishop. Bedecked in jewels, the young woman reminds herself to “glitter and be gay.” When Candide arrives, he recognizes the young woman as his beloved Cunegonde. Candide eventually renounces his teacher’s ideology and decides that the only way is “to make one’s own garden grow.” Eryximachus from Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’) Great literature inspired Leonard Bernstein the composer more than any other catalyst. “It is certainly not an intimate revelation,” de- clared his brother Burton, “to say that Lenny loved words every bit as much as he loved notes.” His literary tastes ranged broadly, from the philosophical essays of classic An- tiquity to scriptural texts, Renaissance and Baroque dramas, and contemporary prose and poetic writings. Fellow pianist-compos- er-conductor Lukas Foss claimed that “Lenny was the most well-read composer I have ever met.” Literature again fired Bernstein’s imagi- nation in 1954, when he worked concurrently on Candide and an orchestral composition for violinist Isaac Stern whose inspiration came from the impromptu expositions on the merits of Eros in Plato’s Symposium . A symposium (literally, “drinking together”) in ancient Greece was an informal but high- ly ritualized social gathering of aristocrat- ic men around dinner, conversation, song, philosophizing, the occasional female flutist or high-class courtesan, and often excessive quantities of wine diluted with water. Writ- ten around 380–375 BCE, Plato’s Symposium describes a fictitious gathering of seven ed- ucated, influential, and aristocratic residents of Athens, each of whom praises the god Eros and expounds on the erotic love and acts of heroism he inspires. These luminaries deliver monologues or speak in dialogue in Bern- stein’s five-movement Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’) . The solo violin serves as the evening’s elected master of ceremonies ( sim- posiarca ), guiding the festivities but also syn- opsizing the various viewpoints on love. On August 8, 1954, the day after completing the score, Bernstein outlined the “guideposts” in Serenade . He described the events of the third movement, Eryximachus , in this way: “The physician speaks of bodily harmony as a scientific model for the workings of love-pat- terns. This is an extremely short fugato scher- zo, born of a blend of mystery and humor.” The Koussevitzky Foundation commissioned Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’) , which is dedicated “To the beloved memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky.” Bernstein conduct- ed the premiere on September 12, 1954, at the Teatro La Fenice in Italy with the Israel Phil- harmonic Orchestra and violinist Isaac Stern. Selections from West Side Story West Side Story began as the brainchild of writer Arthur Laurents, choreographer Je- rome Robbins, and composer Leonard Ber- nstein. In 1949, Robbins proposed that this musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet be given a modern, slum setting during Easter/Passover with a violent con- flict between Catholics and Jews. However, a struggle along religious lines quickly lost its appeal. The three men dropped the idea and went their separate ways. Six years later, the Romeo and Juliet idea re- surfaced during a poolside conversation at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In the aftermath of gang warfare in the Mexican community, Laurents and Bernstein introduced a new spin: a clash between Hispanic and Anglo gangs. Laurents then suggested “the Blacks and Puerto Ricans in New York, because this was the time of the appearance there of teen- age gangs, and the problem of juvenile delin- quency was very much in the news.” Lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the final member of the creative team, joined in 1955. The plot contin- ued to evolve. Several permutations of the ti- tle reflected changes in geography and em- phasis: first East Side Story , then Gangway! , and finally the finger-snapping West Side Sto- ry . The show opened on August 19, 1957, at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, and later moved to Broadway’s Winter Garden Theater on September 26, 1957, where it ran for 732 performances. Direct parallels with Romeo and Juliet abound. Two battling factions suggest the Capulets and Montagues. A generic Anglo gang, the Jets, defends its turf against the in- flux of Hispanic youths, the Sharks. The tragic lovers Maria (Juliet), a Puerto Rican girl, and Tony (Romeo), a member of the Jets, meet and fall in love at a school dance (the ball). Maria’s brother Bernardo (Tybalt) kills To- ny’s best friend, Riff (Mercutio). Tony exacts revenge by murdering Bernardo. In the end, Tony dies in Maria’s arms. –Program notes © 2021 Todd E. Sullivan Chita Rivera and Shark girls performing “America” in the 1957 stage production of West Side Story RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 55