Meema story: peek inside

play Story: West Side Story Documentary (video)
Summary: West Side Story was an acclaimed and popular Broadway musical about an ill-fated and impossible love between Tony and Maria. This story is about a recording of the Broadway score in 1984, 25 years later. Bernstein records the songs with a new generation of performing artists, renown singers who learned to act in the opera rather than Broadway actors who learned to sing in the theater. It's a remarkable documentary that captures the dynamic between the maestro and these superstars. Perhaps because Bernstein is conducting his own piece as an old man, music that he composed many years earlier as a much younger man, you can talk about aging in this context. What does it mean to return to a work from your youth?
Page 1: Introduction
theater-wssd-bernstein-poster-1984
Caption: West Side Story
Narration: West Side Story was a huge Broadway hit in 1957.
Page 2: Leonard Bernstein
Caption: Leonard Bernstein conducting, circa 1959
Narration: Along with Stephen Sondheim and others, Leonard Bernstein composed a score that shocked, delighted and awed millions.
Page 3: Troyanos, Bernstein, Te Kanawa and Carreras
Caption: Tatiana Troyanos, Leonard Bernstein, Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras
Narration: More than 20 years later, Bernstein recorded the entire score again with some of the greatest performers of the day. The music was remarkably fresh and it still is.
Page 4: A Boy Like That (video)
Caption: West Side Story Documentary
Narration: In this scene, we're transported to the studio where Te Kanawa and Troyanos sing, "A Boy Like That." <break time="2s"/> She tells Maria, "He'll murder your love! He murdered mine..." <break time="2s"/> But Maria answers, "I have my love." She asks, "What else can I do." <break time="2s"/> Finally, Anita agrees.
Page 5: Talking about the Making of West Side Story recording of 1984
Caption: Leonard Bernstein
Narration: What would you like to talk about.