West Side Story and other Stories
Posted by: garyi on 14 July 2002
Well, here it was, the weekend that went.
Friday night was supposed to be a trip to London Town to 'The End' to see Bukem, Nookie, Angel and others. However we couldn't make it.
Saturday night however was more succesful with a rather spledid evening at Wilton House enjoying the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The evening started well, we arrived early, via a bloody great tractor with twenty of us perched on a trailer on the back, waving regaly to the walking peasants!
The concert started with some nice classical, it lost the plot for me towards the end of the first half with far to much opera style stuff, not my cup of tea at all.
The second half however proved very interesting.
We were presented with Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story: Symphonic Dances.
Wow!
It was amazing, I see where Zappa got his ideas. There were elements of this style in Burnt weeny and frankly Inca Roads was practically a rip off.
So on to a Car booty today I spotted West Side Story on record, however no mention of this peice of music.
So to the questions.
What should I be looking for with Bernstein?
Is west side story all classical?
Why is opera so popular when all it does is make your ears bleed?
Some piccies of the evening:
Friday night was supposed to be a trip to London Town to 'The End' to see Bukem, Nookie, Angel and others. However we couldn't make it.
Saturday night however was more succesful with a rather spledid evening at Wilton House enjoying the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The evening started well, we arrived early, via a bloody great tractor with twenty of us perched on a trailer on the back, waving regaly to the walking peasants!
The concert started with some nice classical, it lost the plot for me towards the end of the first half with far to much opera style stuff, not my cup of tea at all.
The second half however proved very interesting.
We were presented with Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story: Symphonic Dances.
Wow!
It was amazing, I see where Zappa got his ideas. There were elements of this style in Burnt weeny and frankly Inca Roads was practically a rip off.
So on to a Car booty today I spotted West Side Story on record, however no mention of this peice of music.
So to the questions.
What should I be looking for with Bernstein?
Is west side story all classical?
Why is opera so popular when all it does is make your ears bleed?
Some piccies of the evening:
quote:
West Side Story is not an opera, but merely one of many utterly useless American musicals.
Never had an altercation with Vuk before, so here goes.
'yer daft bugger'
how was that?
Yep. American in Paris, Singing in the Rain, Wizard of Oz, On the Town, On the waterfront..all rubbish. Oh God, it's so obvious now.
Regards
Stephen
PS Don't get the Kiri & Jose Bernstein version of WSS - the music is great but the singing is awful - they have no idea how to sing the jazz at all.
Nick, I was the one using the camera 
Gary, Gary,
where will this end? Classical music? What are you going to do next? Go to Bayreuth (funny old Wagner place)?
The Symphonic Dances is a sort of abbreviated symphonic (ergo without singers) version of WSS. So you get Somewhere (featuring the Ur-Bernstein interval) in the woodwinds, instead of the soprano.
There should be a cheap Symphonic Dances on Virgin Classics conducted by Edo the Waard and the Minneapolis. 's Good combo. Perhaps it's a good idea to get the orchestral version first.
Don't worry. You'll get over it.
Herman
where will this end? Classical music? What are you going to do next? Go to Bayreuth (funny old Wagner place)?
The Symphonic Dances is a sort of abbreviated symphonic (ergo without singers) version of WSS. So you get Somewhere (featuring the Ur-Bernstein interval) in the woodwinds, instead of the soprano.
There should be a cheap Symphonic Dances on Virgin Classics conducted by Edo the Waard and the Minneapolis. 's Good combo. Perhaps it's a good idea to get the orchestral version first.
Don't worry. You'll get over it.
Herman