Celebrating "West Side Story"

 
Fifty-four year ago today one of the greatest moments in theater history occurred as West Side Story premiered at the National Theater in Washington D.C. After successful previews in D.C. and Philadelphia, the original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theater on September 26, 1957 making a permanent mark on American theater.

West Side Story was composed by Leonard Bernstein with a script by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical is a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

The original production was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince and starred Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria, Chita Rivera as Anita and David Winters as Baby John the youngest of the gang members. Robbins won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer, and Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer. Also nominated were Carol Lawrence, as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical, Max Goberman as Best Musical Director, and Irene Sharaff for Best Costume Design. Carol Lawrence received the 1958 Theatre World Award. The production ran for 732 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre before touring and then returning to the Winter Garden Theatre in 1960 for another 253 performance engagement.

The great Sherrill Milnes performing Maria:



And just for fun, here is the charming, attractive and talented John Barrowman singing Maria:



And since we've strayed away from baritones, here is a rare clip from a 1964 broadcast of the "Anna Moffo Show":

Verdi Backup SIngers

Guido Loconsolo from www.guidoloconsolo.com

We continue our Verdi series with two great roles for baritone that aren't one of the lead characters, but critical to the story, Iago in Otello and Ford in Falstaff.

One of the most popular baritone arias is Ford's "E'sogno o realtà," where a singer can display great emotion as the character becomes consumed with jealousy.

We'll start with Lee Poulis who we recently featured singing in Bernard Hermann's Wuthering Heights at the Minnesota Opera. He has the type of voice that is often cast for this role. Poulis shows how well the aria works for recitals and competitions. For comparison listen to the rich, darker baritone of Guido Loconsolo with orchestra.





Few secondary characters are more critical to the plot line that the evil and sinister Iago, who sets in motion everything that leads to Otello killing the innocent Desdemona. A great Iago can easily steal the show from the tenor and soprano, much like a great Azucena or Amneris can steal the show in Il Trovatore and Aida respectively. Let's start with two of the greatest versions ever, Leonard Warren and Ettore Bastianini. We'll follow that with the thrilling duet "S pel ciel" with Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes from the 1979 "Live from the Met" telecast.





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The Verdi Kings

Samuel Ramey as Attila and a young Sherrill Milnes

We're going to continue exploring Verdi this week with a look at the Verdi kings. We'll start with Verdi's first major success, Nabucco. This is the story of the Babylonian king Nabucodonosor, who assaults, conquers and drives the Jewish people from their homeland. Despite the story, it contains some of the most dramatically exciting and hair raising music in all of Verdi. The famous chorus "Va pensiero" is universally known and has become the unofficial national anthem of Italy. In a country filled with music, nothing stirs the heart of an Italian like this piece of music.

Not many barihunks have sung the title role of Nabucco, but we found this version of Ettore Bastianini from the San Francisco Opera in 1961.



Just for fun, here is the famous chorus sung by some of the greatest singers who were around in 1985, including Montserrat Caballe, Agnes Baltsa, Gwyneth Jones, Jose Carreras, Giuseppe di Stefano and baritones Christian Boesch, Renato Bruson (a great Nabucco), Sherrill Milnes, Giorgio Zancanaro and Juan Pons.



We now move to Amonasro, the king of the Ethiopians and father of the title character Aida. He plays a key role in the plot line and has been played by some of the greatest baritones in history. Here is the Act 3 duet between Aida and Amonasro "Ciel, mio padre...Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate" with performances by seven of the greatest baritones and sopranos to ever sing the opera. We have a definitive favorite in this bunch, but we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.



Verdi based his ninth opera on the Solera play "Attila, King of the Huns." Besides the title role, there is a another wonderful role for a more lyric baritone, that of Ezio, who sings the aria "E gettata la mia sorte." You can watch Sherrill Milnes perform the aria below. We've always wondered why more young singers don't audition with this show stopper. It's a sure winner if you can nail the ending.



No one has owned the role of Attila in recent years more than the great Samuel Ramey, who always sang it with barihunk swagger and his chest bared. Here he is singing the great baritone duet with the Ezio of Giorgio Zancanaro, followed by the thrilling aria "Or son libere i miei sensi."





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