Subsequent to the good George Gershwin, no different American composer can declare to have labored throughout as many musical genres, aside from Leonard Bernstein.
A musical genius who enlightened our lives, Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) appeared equally comfy in classical, theatre, jazz, and, in a minimum of one occasion (Elia Kazan’s On The Waterfront) movie scores; throughout all of them, his work was persistently compelling, singular and elegant. Right here’s a have a look at how one in all America’s biggest composers conquered the Broadway stage and past.
Take heed to Bernstein On Broadway proper now.
An early ardour for music
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, Bernstein’s curiosity in music began at an early age. When he was 10 years previous, his aunt Clara gave his dad and mom an upright piano for which the younger Bernstein instantly developed an intense ardour. Years later, whereas a scholar at Harvard, he met Dimitri Mitropoulos, who inspired him to turn into a conductor. Bernstein went on to check beneath Fritz Reiner on the Curtis Institute Of Music in Philadelphia and, in 1940, went to Tanglewood (the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer time dwelling within the Berkshires) the place the famed conductor Serge Koussetvitzky took him beneath his tutelage and gave him his first alternative to seem in public.
Artur Rodzinski, music director of the New York Philharmonic who had heard Bernstein conduct a rehearsal at Tanglewood, requested the fledgling composer to be his assistant for the 1943-44 season. Often, assistant administrators do little greater than heat up the orchestra earlier than a efficiency, however on 14 November, Bernstein abruptly discovered himself propelled to heart stage when the scheduled conductor turned ailing and wanted to get replaced. With attribute aptitude, Bernstein seized the chance and led the orchestra in a vibrant efficiency that obtained inordinate publicity when it was reviewed on the entrance web page of The New York Occasions.
Hailed as a “wunderkind”
Now hailed as a “wunderkind,” Bernstein started to obtain musical commissions. The primary he accepted was a ballet, Fancy Free, choreographed for the Ballet Theatre by one other gifted newcomer, Jerome Robbins. The work, which described the 24-hour shore go away of three sailors in New York, premiered on the Metropolitan Opera Home on April 18, 1944, and was such a convincing success that its creators determined to make use of it as the premise for a bigger work – the Broadway musical On The City.
An irresistible mix of youthful exuberance and vivid, energetic motion, with nice lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Inexperienced and an thrilling rating by Bernstein, On The City opened on the Adelphi Theatre on December 28, 1944, and loved a wholesome run of 463 performances. It subsequently made a profitable switch to the display as a automobile for Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
It took 9 years earlier than Bernstein returned to Broadway, in 1953, with the creation of Great City, which paired him once more with Comden and Inexperienced. Serviced by a cheery e-book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov (adapting one in all their very own performs, My Sister Eileen), Great City made a splash when it opened on the Winter Backyard, on February 25, 1953, the place it could run for 559 performances.
Composing “serious works”
Along with his quite a few engagements as conductor of the Philharmonic, Bernstein turned his consideration to composing “serious works” and internet hosting a celebrated (and influential) tv program, The Younger Folks’s Live shows, amongst different occupations that saved him away from the stage. He returned to Broadway in 1956, this time with an adaptation of Candide, the 18th-century satirical French novella by Voltaire. With a e-book by Lillian Hellman and lyrics by John La Touche, Dorothy Parker, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur, it appeared like a super venture, however it quickly turned obvious that the story was ill-suited for a stage therapy (a minimum of in the best way it was initially conceived).
When Candide opened on December 1, 1956, the operetta was characterised as too intellectual, and it closed after solely 73 performances. Bernstein’s rating, nevertheless, was the silver lining that saved firms coming again. With its big selection of nice tunes, Candide included a tango, a mazurka, a barcarolle, and an aria, amongst many different chosen moments that added as much as a superb show of orchestral pyrotechnics, the entire thing capped by a scintillating “Overture” which quickly turned a basic in live performance halls all over the world. Revamped and reinvented, Candide discovered better success later with two Broadway revivals, in 1973 and 1997, respectively, and a current revival manufacturing by the Los Angeles Opera starring Kelsey Grammer.
His most enduring work
When Bernstein scored his subsequent effort, he discovered prompt success and created one in all his most enduring works, West Facet Story. A contemporary-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, set in New York, Bernstein and Jerome Robbins had begun engaged on the thought some years earlier as a love story between a younger Jewish lady and an Italian Catholic boy residing on the Decrease East Facet of Manhattan. Someway it didn’t click on the best way they needed it to, they usually shelved the thought.
They returned to it six years later, however in view of the growing inflow of younger Puerto Ricans, they determined {that a} storyline involving a Puerto Rican lady and an all-American boy would have extra relevance. The plot was developed across the rivalry between two gangs: The Sharks and The Jets, and their wrestle for management over the Higher West Facet. Bernstein had initially thought of writing each music and lyrics however ended up ceding the latter to a newcomer, Stephen Sondheim, who would quickly make a reputation for himself as some of the celebrated composer-lyricists of his era.
When the present opened on the Winter Backyard, on September 16, 1957, it was unanimously hailed as a formidable achievement. “It takes up the American musical idiom where it was left when George Gershwin died,” proclaimed The Every day Information. West Facet Story had a run of 734 performances however obtained worldwide recognition when it was tailored for the display in 1962, with memorable performances by Natalie Wooden and Rita Moreno as its two feminine leads
Although he usually expressed the will to write down for Broadway once more (his solely different present was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, an formidable try and chronicle the primary hundred years at The White Home), Bernstein’s final grand-scale work for the stage was Mass, an important enterprise created in 1971 for the opening of the John F Kennedy Middle For The Performing Arts, in Washington, DC. With lyrics by Depraved composer Stephen Schwartz, Mass has been described as a “theatre piece for singers, players, and dancers,” and takes its inspiration from the Roman Catholic liturgy.
In its personal manner, that manufacturing additionally symbolizes all the things Bernstein was: a person whose life was a wierd combination of flamboyant outbursts and profound emotional perceptions, and who, in his finest moments (they usually have been many), may conjure up the Jazz Age pleasure of George Gershwin and the brooding depth of Gustav Mahler, a composer Bernstein admired and championed incessantly.
