'West Side Story' is a "masterpiece" that is also performed at the Liceu.

BarcelonaThere are few things more stimulating than the enthusiasm of musicians chatting about music, especially when they're not talking about their music. It happened this Monday during the press conference for the presentation of West Side Story at the Liceu, where two performances have been scheduled, in a symphonic concert version, on July 29 and 31. West Side Story You can feel New York under construction. It's fascinating," says Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who will conduct the Liceu Symphony Orchestra in both performances. "Bernstein is a unique character: creator, pedagogue, composer, conductor, and a humanist.""Wonderful. I don't see anyone capable of doing everything he did. He was too many people in one person, like Maestro Abreu [the founder of the Venezuelan System of Orchestras and Hearts]," continues Dudamel, touched by Bernstein's influence from a young age: "West Side Story It has accompanied me since I was a child. Especially the mambo, it became an emblem of my youth with the youth orchestra of the Simón Bolívar System."

The American soprano Nadine Sierra and the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, María and Tony, express themselves with the same passion in this West Side Story, who meet again on stage a few weeks after participating in La Traviata at the Teatro Real in Madrid. For Sierra, Bernstein was already a role model when she was little: "He was part of my childhood and adolescence..." she recalls. "It's incredible how Bernstein mastered Latin music rhythms like the mambo," says Flórez, who also explains that her daughter "adores" West Side StoryDudamel's son, Martín, also plays the role. "He knows all the songs. He's seen the film, the Steven Spielberg one, seven times," the Venezuelan director reports. in the film that Spielberg directed in 2021"Steven reviewed the score and was very attentive to the musical scenes. He is a very musical filmmaker!" exclaims Dudamel. The modern version of Romeo and Julietwhere the Montagu and Capulets of Shakespeare's tragedy are the Jets and the Sharks, youth gangs with European and Puerto Rican roots, respectively. In 1961, Robert Wise made a film adaptation, starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, and with Rita Moreno as Anita, a role that New York soprano Isabel Leonard would sing at the Liceu, making her debut at the Rambla theater. "Here, the Americans play the roles of the Latinos, and the Latinos play the roles of the Americans," notes Flórez, reviewing the Liceu cast.

West Side Story It quickly made a hole in popular culture and songs like America, Maria and Tonight have been interpreted by countless artists in different musical contexts, from jazz to "el bolso nuevo" and rock. As Dudamel says, it is a "masterpiece" that year after year acquires new "dimensions." Even sociopolitical ones. "History does not reflect only one country. We live in a great global dilemma regarding immigration, and now it is more obvious in the United States because the issue is at the forefront, but it is the stone that human beings permanently collide with. María and Tony are from two groups of young people who fight for a territory, but in the end they realize that they are the same, that they belong to the same thing, that they belong" type.

Spielberg's film and the biopic about Bernstein, Teacher, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper in 2023, have recovered the figure of the composer of West Side Story for the popular imagination. Unfortunately, as Sierra notes, his status as a reference is no longer the same. "I have to be honest. There are many people who have no idea who Leonard Bernstein is. I'm referring to young people, those of generations Z and alpha. I was born in 1988 in the United States, and I grew up with references like Bernstein. Now, when I return to my country, it was a place where I find myself in a very good place. They are Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump," Sierra laments. "Right now, Leonard Bernstein's creativity could help a lot of people, not only in the United States, but all over the world. I hope so," hopes the soprano from Florida, a major star of the year at the Liceu, where she starred. La Traviata and The sleepwalker and gave a recital. "Coming to Barcelona is like coming home," he says.

The microphone, the "forbidden fruit" of opera singers

Interestingly, Bernstein did not conduct West Side Story until 1984, when he recorded an operatic version with Josep Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa. In keeping with this version, Dudamel has added a broader orchestration to give it a more symphonic rather than musical theater-like quality. Even so, it won't be a fully "operatic" version, because there will be some amplification for the voices. "But it's not amplification like in a pop concert, but rather an aid in an orchestration that includes drums, electric guitar, Spanish guitar, mandolin, Latin percussion, and jazz instruments," warns Dudamel. As Sierra says, for opera singers the microphone is "the forbidden fruit," but it must be kept in mind that in West Side Story There's also "a lot of dialogue": "We're singers, but we're also actors and actresses. And it's a lot of fun discovering other sides of your opera colleagues," says the soprano. "With a microphone, I can lower my tone. There are a lot of words in the musical's text, and it helps me a lot not to have to constantly project my voice," explains Flórez, referring to a work in which, as Dudamel says, "the musicians play with a smile on their faces."