Word: bernstein
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...Broadway premiere in 1957, the city-gritty updating of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet by Composer Leo nard Bernstein, Lyricist Stephen Sondheim and Choreographer Jerome Robbins was hailed as much for its quasi-operatic score as for its savvy lyrics and explosive, streetwise dances. Now comes a new Deutsche Grammophon recording, conducted by the composer, that makes the show's higher musical aspirations unabashedly explicit...
Writing an operatic Broadway show was considered box-office poison 30 years ago, but Bernstein was up to the task. "Chief problem (is) to tread the fine line between opera and Broadway, between realism and poetry, ballet and 'just dancing,' " noted the composer in his log the year before it opened. In Candide (1956), he had attempted such a synthesis, but that show was crippled by a bitter book that was vulgarized in its later revisions. With West Side Story, however, Bernstein's command of popular idioms, his soaring lyric gifts and technical skills got free rein in a show...
...Kiri Te Kanawa and Tenor Jose Carreras are Maria and Tony, the doomed lovers from rival gangs; Mezzo Tatiana Troyanos is Maria's friend Anita, who feels that life is all right in America; peerless Mezzo Marilyn Horne makes a cameo appearance singing the gentle ballad Somewhere; and, surprisingly, Bernstein conducts his full score for the first time. Far from being a vanity production with a group of slumming opera stars, however, the performance is convincing and vital...
...from New York City's tough West Side, but she floats a golden high pianissimo at the end of Tonight effortlessly. Troyanos, who was born in the neighborhood where the musical is set (and where Lincoln Center now stands), crackles uninhibitedly in the rhythmically ) infectious immigration anthem America. And Bernstein, leading an orchestra of New York free-lancers, conducts authoritatively and irresistibly...
Whatever the risks, tan enthusiasts seem willing to overlook them for the immediate benefit: a healthy-looking golden glow. Says Rob Bernstein, 31, who spends 30 minutes each weekday at a tanning salon in Dallas: "I think a year- round tan is a good, successful, power look. It's just a part of good grooming." Better yet, a tan in the dead of winter implies that the wearer has the money and leisure to travel to exotic, sunny locales. Says Jeff Russell, 23, of Evanston, Ill.: "It's a conversation piece. People are always asking, 'Where have you been...