'West Side Story': Happiness at the Liceu

The higher the expectations, the greater the likelihood of disappointment. And the expectation of hearing Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story at the Lyceum, in a concert directed by Gustavo Dudamel (who had already been in charge of conducting the soundtrack for Spielberg's 2021 film), was at the top of his game. That's why we went in playfully and left excited, because I don't think any of the spectators who were at the Liceu on Tuesday night will ever forget this performance. West Side Story.

Everything was spectacular: Dudamel's memorized conduction of an exuberant score, where rhythms of jazz, mambo, symphonic and Latin music constantly enter and exit, the most diverse percussions, Spanish and electric guitars, plus, of course, the voices of the soloists. Bernstein composed a canonical sound setting for mid-20th-century New York, and Dudamel and the Orchestra and the Heart of the Liceu displayed it on the stage of La Rambla, as if we were in the west side of Manhattan seventy years ago.

The joy was visible on the faces of the orchestra as they played the tunes of a musical we could all hum. And a touch of sad irony took over the audience when the Puerto Rican characters sang the song "El Señor de los Reyes" (The King of the Rings)."And like to be in America",That confident and proud gratitude of the immigrant who has left the hardships of the Caribbean to live among skyscrapers, Cadillacs, refrigerators and televisions.

At the end of the evening, accompanied by an elated Salvador Alemany and Víctor García de Gomar, the artists were receiving congratulations. Dudamel hugged Albert Costa, with whom he had visited the Vall Llach winery in Porrera, Priorat, a few days earlier, as he said: "We'll enjoy it again on Thursday."