A 190 pound Maria? I bet you could put Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno together on a scale and barely reach 190 pounds.
The music is still great, and I wish I could listen to this West Side Story version, even if I might close my eyes.
Next time you hear someone raving about how wonderful “Hamilton” was, ask them to hum their favorite melody from “Hamilton”…then ask the same question about “West Side Story”.
Wow! That clip from the original musical was worth the price of my subscription. I've never been a big fan of musical theater (although the movie version of Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum is one of my all time favorite flicks) but that's some world class singing and dancing!
Just to get it off my chest: I’ve always hated WSS. It represents to me the birth of identarianism and American race obsession. Americans have separate races for people us Australians can’t even tell apart. I hated the pointless effeminate dancing and hoped all these dreadful characters would stab each other as soon as possible so decent people could go home.
But there’s an element of cussedness in my attitude I must admit. I loathe it partially because of the people that (ostentatiously) like it; Citizen Kane is probably not nearly as dire as I’m tempted to think it is by the wankers who bore on about it.
I OTOH love West Side Story because I had the broadway cast album on an early pressing "Columbia 6 eye" LP and didn't see the inferior film version until years later. I don't like any other broadway musical especially, though I love a lot of movie musicals.
While Bernstein is gay by the Andrew Dice Clay definition, it is worth noting that he was married to a woman for 27 years until he became a widower and they had three children. Also worth noting is that as gay men both Laurents and Sondheim lived into their 90s
I have to say I was more of an Elmer Bernstein fan myself. Elmer had three wives and four children but I don't think he was gay 😊
For those who don't know Elmer, he scored many big movies that you've heard of; his greatest-hits album would contain all songs that you would recognize
Have always loved West Side Story, wonderful music. A bizarre choice for an opera, in my opinion. The primary pleasure of the show on stage is the choreography.
At my suburban Catholic high school, the Jets were played by the Irish and Polish kids while the Sharks were played by the Italians.
That line about the poor deracinated whites who never had the brains or character to move on up out of the city (or was it the bad neighborhood?--but what made it bad?) got me thinking about a bizarre leftard hypocrisy--that some races can't be expected to do better.
So Ricans living the in the "inner city" is wonderful, but whites living there is so underperforming that they deserve contempt rather than sympathy? Or the implicit assumption that arabs cannot be expected to behave like civilized people but Jews should be, if anything, super-civilized (act like they live in Sweden surrounded by other Scandinavians).
Or that America should give away its manufacturing because, as of the late 20th century, if a white man is earning a living with his hands, something has gone terribly wrong. Logic and human nature require that antiracism always circle back around---through obfuscating contortions---to racism.
Opera singing is boring. I have an untestable hypothesis that in the past it was as exciting as our contemporary music but time, study, formalization, and reverence stripped it of everything but athletic technique. If you can sit through three hours of that, your tush is better than mine.
I love the original broadway soundtrack because it's exciting, audience pleasing and modern.
I would relish the opportunity to look through a time machine and see how future musicologists and publicly funded rock foundations (you know, charities that put on rock shows in 2245 AD) blandify Led Zeppelin, The Clash, and The Talking Heads.
And what is wrong with the 1967 Richard Harris and Venessa Redgrave version of Camelot? It’s at least decent. I know, Harris couldn’t sing, but the buyers of McArthur Park didn’t care and neither do I.
If it uses amplification, it isn't opera. I was put out watching Les Miz in '88 because the sound was coming from a speaker above my head in the second tier. I've since appreciated the music more, but the concert versions are ruined by the singers belting out notes like a paralyzed Ethel Merman.
West Side Story could have been my story. I grew up in Chicago, in West Town, a neighborhood eventually over run with Puerto Ricans and Mexicans My P.R. heart throb was Annette not Maria. Eventually that changed tp Geraldine, a Polish girl. My neighborhood was Polish, Ukrainian and a bunch of other Eastern European immigrants and their descendants. I moved there when I was nine. As time went by more and more of my friends moved away. Puerto Ricans and Mexicans began occupying Division Street and the areas north of that. A long time had to pass before I figured it all out. The powers that be waged a war of ethnic cleansing. Crime increased. Even my family eventually moved out. Yes, it was ethnic cleansing, a policy, a strategy to radically change the demographics of Chicago. "Open housing" became the law. Southern Protestants along with Hispanics were in, Catholic Poles, Ukrainians, Italians, Irish, Lithuanians and so on were out. It worked as it always does, spectacularly. Today former Black Southern Baptists, now commies, run the city--into the ground. I consider the musical, West Side Story a kind of short hand for what was going on.
"several classic musicals without satisfactory screen versions, such as Camelot, Guys and Dolls, or South Pacific?"
Uh, South Pacific did quite well in 1958 at the box office, Steve. 1955's Guys and Dolls, with Brando/Sinatra also was a major hit at the box office as well. Both musicals were very popular with both the public and the critics.
Singing all the words with no spoken dialogue reminds one of the 1964 French film the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. None of the major actors, including Katherine DeNeuve sang their parts, so the entire film they didn't speak nor sing their lines at all.
As far as being the greatest US musical produced or made into a film? Let's give that honor to Robert Wise's other Academy Award winning Best Director (and Best Film) Oscar--the Sound of Music. The SOM is one of the biggest box office hits for most of the 20th Century (adjusted for inflation), and, is the highest grossing musical made into a film by Classic Hollywood. Critics certainly liked it at the time as it won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. Holds up pretty well as iconic musical films go, made a superstar out of Christopher Plummer and solidified Julie Andrews's superstardom as well.
In general I don't think West Side Story works as an opera.
I think the musicals that are better as operas are Sweeney Todd or Porgy & Bess. Great music and much less dancing.
I enjoyed some other Bernstein musicals including On the Town and Candide (which is bit long). It is a real shame he did not do more.
Sadly his classical music compositions are really mediocre. Over the years I have been in concerts where they play his music and not the worst I've ever heard, it is still pretty bad. By now I think it has been totally forgotten.
"America" slowed down to 85% of its usual pace may be lifeless, but the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain used to do a version of it slowed down to about 60% and it is sensational.
Similar puzzlement about Lenny’s Candide. I saw it last year, performed as an opera. But it’s more a musical really. Although it does require operatic voices (especially for the Glitter And Be Gay, lol, one of the most difficult arias in opera.)
A 190 pound Maria? I bet you could put Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno together on a scale and barely reach 190 pounds.
The music is still great, and I wish I could listen to this West Side Story version, even if I might close my eyes.
Next time you hear someone raving about how wonderful “Hamilton” was, ask them to hum their favorite melody from “Hamilton”…then ask the same question about “West Side Story”.
Life in America sure seems a lot better for women than the men in this song.
Wow! That clip from the original musical was worth the price of my subscription. I've never been a big fan of musical theater (although the movie version of Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum is one of my all time favorite flicks) but that's some world class singing and dancing!
Just to get it off my chest: I’ve always hated WSS. It represents to me the birth of identarianism and American race obsession. Americans have separate races for people us Australians can’t even tell apart. I hated the pointless effeminate dancing and hoped all these dreadful characters would stab each other as soon as possible so decent people could go home.
But there’s an element of cussedness in my attitude I must admit. I loathe it partially because of the people that (ostentatiously) like it; Citizen Kane is probably not nearly as dire as I’m tempted to think it is by the wankers who bore on about it.
Upvote for sheer and perfectly distilled cussedness.
I OTOH love West Side Story because I had the broadway cast album on an early pressing "Columbia 6 eye" LP and didn't see the inferior film version until years later. I don't like any other broadway musical especially, though I love a lot of movie musicals.
> four gay Jews
While Bernstein is gay by the Andrew Dice Clay definition, it is worth noting that he was married to a woman for 27 years until he became a widower and they had three children. Also worth noting is that as gay men both Laurents and Sondheim lived into their 90s
Lenny was kind of like movie director Baz Luhrmann -- very gay, but also proud of being man enough to have a lovely wife and kids.
I have to say I was more of an Elmer Bernstein fan myself. Elmer had three wives and four children but I don't think he was gay 😊
For those who don't know Elmer, he scored many big movies that you've heard of; his greatest-hits album would contain all songs that you would recognize
Baz Luhrmann’s West Side Story would be so good. Shame he already made it.
Have always loved West Side Story, wonderful music. A bizarre choice for an opera, in my opinion. The primary pleasure of the show on stage is the choreography.
At my suburban Catholic high school, the Jets were played by the Irish and Polish kids while the Sharks were played by the Italians.
That line about the poor deracinated whites who never had the brains or character to move on up out of the city (or was it the bad neighborhood?--but what made it bad?) got me thinking about a bizarre leftard hypocrisy--that some races can't be expected to do better.
So Ricans living the in the "inner city" is wonderful, but whites living there is so underperforming that they deserve contempt rather than sympathy? Or the implicit assumption that arabs cannot be expected to behave like civilized people but Jews should be, if anything, super-civilized (act like they live in Sweden surrounded by other Scandinavians).
Or that America should give away its manufacturing because, as of the late 20th century, if a white man is earning a living with his hands, something has gone terribly wrong. Logic and human nature require that antiracism always circle back around---through obfuscating contortions---to racism.
Opera singing is boring. I have an untestable hypothesis that in the past it was as exciting as our contemporary music but time, study, formalization, and reverence stripped it of everything but athletic technique. If you can sit through three hours of that, your tush is better than mine.
I love the original broadway soundtrack because it's exciting, audience pleasing and modern.
I would relish the opportunity to look through a time machine and see how future musicologists and publicly funded rock foundations (you know, charities that put on rock shows in 2245 AD) blandify Led Zeppelin, The Clash, and The Talking Heads.
And what is wrong with the 1967 Richard Harris and Venessa Redgrave version of Camelot? It’s at least decent. I know, Harris couldn’t sing, but the buyers of McArthur Park didn’t care and neither do I.
The movie "Camelot" is super hippie, which must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
Blame the musicians and stagehand unions.
If it uses amplification, it isn't opera. I was put out watching Les Miz in '88 because the sound was coming from a speaker above my head in the second tier. I've since appreciated the music more, but the concert versions are ruined by the singers belting out notes like a paralyzed Ethel Merman.
West Side Story could have been my story. I grew up in Chicago, in West Town, a neighborhood eventually over run with Puerto Ricans and Mexicans My P.R. heart throb was Annette not Maria. Eventually that changed tp Geraldine, a Polish girl. My neighborhood was Polish, Ukrainian and a bunch of other Eastern European immigrants and their descendants. I moved there when I was nine. As time went by more and more of my friends moved away. Puerto Ricans and Mexicans began occupying Division Street and the areas north of that. A long time had to pass before I figured it all out. The powers that be waged a war of ethnic cleansing. Crime increased. Even my family eventually moved out. Yes, it was ethnic cleansing, a policy, a strategy to radically change the demographics of Chicago. "Open housing" became the law. Southern Protestants along with Hispanics were in, Catholic Poles, Ukrainians, Italians, Irish, Lithuanians and so on were out. It worked as it always does, spectacularly. Today former Black Southern Baptists, now commies, run the city--into the ground. I consider the musical, West Side Story a kind of short hand for what was going on.
"several classic musicals without satisfactory screen versions, such as Camelot, Guys and Dolls, or South Pacific?"
Uh, South Pacific did quite well in 1958 at the box office, Steve. 1955's Guys and Dolls, with Brando/Sinatra also was a major hit at the box office as well. Both musicals were very popular with both the public and the critics.
Singing all the words with no spoken dialogue reminds one of the 1964 French film the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. None of the major actors, including Katherine DeNeuve sang their parts, so the entire film they didn't speak nor sing their lines at all.
As far as being the greatest US musical produced or made into a film? Let's give that honor to Robert Wise's other Academy Award winning Best Director (and Best Film) Oscar--the Sound of Music. The SOM is one of the biggest box office hits for most of the 20th Century (adjusted for inflation), and, is the highest grossing musical made into a film by Classic Hollywood. Critics certainly liked it at the time as it won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. Holds up pretty well as iconic musical films go, made a superstar out of Christopher Plummer and solidified Julie Andrews's superstardom as well.
Actually I think a young Anna Netrebko would have been an awesome as Maria (if she can dance!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkShRZkd-n4
In general I don't think West Side Story works as an opera.
I think the musicals that are better as operas are Sweeney Todd or Porgy & Bess. Great music and much less dancing.
I enjoyed some other Bernstein musicals including On the Town and Candide (which is bit long). It is a real shame he did not do more.
Sadly his classical music compositions are really mediocre. Over the years I have been in concerts where they play his music and not the worst I've ever heard, it is still pretty bad. By now I think it has been totally forgotten.
"America" slowed down to 85% of its usual pace may be lifeless, but the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain used to do a version of it slowed down to about 60% and it is sensational.
Somebody discovered around 1970 that "Dixie" slowed waaaaay down is heartbreaking.
The Gershwins wrote "Someone to Watch Over Me" as a fast Charleston dance number, then eventually turned it into a ballad.
Similar puzzlement about Lenny’s Candide. I saw it last year, performed as an opera. But it’s more a musical really. Although it does require operatic voices (especially for the Glitter And Be Gay, lol, one of the most difficult arias in opera.)
Do you think Spielberg and his ilk believe this shiite or are they just pandering to who they believe their audience is?
It was 2021, the world went mad.