West Side Story Comes to the Baths of Caracalla

It was supposed to be called “East Side Story,” a musical about clashes between Catholic and Jewish groups. An idea that never took off because in the meantime reality tells of the violence of young Latino gangs in Los Angeles. So we “move” to the Upper West Side of New York, where Puerto Rican immigrants clash with gangs of white, second-generation American kids. “West Side Story” was born. It was 1955 when Leonard Bernstein wrote in his diary: “We’ve abandoned the whole Jewish-Catholic premise because it’s no longer fresh , and we’ve come closer to what I imagine it to be: two gangs of kids, one Puerto Rican on the warpath, the other so-called ‘Americans’ . Suddenly it all comes alive. I feel the rhythms and the pulses, and – above all – I have a sense of form.”

The original idea of ​​telling the story of the clashes between Jews and Catholics, then abandoned in 1955 to reflect the present of immigrant gangs

A show whose numbers, though impressive, do not fully convey all that it has represented in the history of music, but also of ballet and theater. On September 26, 1957, it debuted at the Winter Garden Theatre with 732 subsequent performances. Danton Walker of the New York Times calls it "a masterpiece of dance, song, lighting, costumes and stage technique that is timely, tight and excellent in every way". John Chapman, of the Daily News, writes: "The American theater has taken a bold step forward [...]. It is a new, brave kind of musical theater. In it, the various skills of show business are subjected to new tests, and the result is a musical of an entirely different nature". Yet the real consecration comes after the tour on the West Coast and the 1,040 performances at Her Majesty's Theatre in London from December 12, 1958 onwards. In 1961, a film version directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise received 11 Oscar nominations, winning 10, a record for the genre. And then in 2009 again on Broadway, 748 sold-out performances, and in 2021, for the sixtieth anniversary of the film, a new adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg. Currently, data reports 250 productions each year in the United States , the libretto has been translated into over 26 languages, including Chinese, Hebrew, Dutch and six different translations into Spanish to adapt to local dialects. A classic capable of bridging the gap between ballet and prose, between opera and musical, between “cultured” and popular music, between Shakespearean tragedy and comedy, between Broadway and the real New York .

Laurents and Sondheim's libretto inextricably linked to Robbins' choreography. Data today reports 250 productions each year in the USA

Bernstein’s notes and Arthur Laurents’ libretto are inextricably linked to Stephen Sondheim’s verses and, above all, Jerome Robbins’ choreography . Four artists with strong personalities, capable of esteeming each other but also of clashing over working methods and the future of a project initially abandoned by producer Cheryl Crawford and later taken over by Harold Prince and Robert Griffith. “We argued,” Stephen Sondheim recalls ironically, “but it was never unpleasant. Sometimes it was even fun. We kept our hostilities outside, playing anagrams. Lenny never won.” The goal is to elevate the musical genre by sharing the best of their skills to create a new stage form, as Jerome Robbins explains: “Why should we work separately and in different contexts? Why should Lenny compose an opera, Arthur write a play and I choreograph a ballet? Why not instead aspire to unite our authentic talents in this single creation aimed at the big stage? This is the true spirit of the show”. In this way, they not only revolutionize the form of the musical, but they also take equal care of the content, transforming “West Side Story” into a mature work that bluntly addresses profound and political themes: violence, racial hatred, rape, murder, aspects that until then had been rarely seen on stage and yet were extremely topical. America in those years feared contamination and at the same time saw the advance of McCarthyism. These were all phenomena amplified by new means of communication such as comics, cinema and rock'n'roll, followed with interest by young people. “West Side Story” does not want to fuel fear or frenzy in people, but on the contrary to portray complex characters, victims of circumstances and adults (the incompetent social worker, the threatening policeman...), incapable of offering a positive role model.

The plot, although inspired by William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", is set on a social level with an ethnic twist: an urban story that serves as the backdrop to the love between Maria and Tony. The girl is the sister of Bernardo, the charismatic leader of the Sharks; Tony, on the other hand, is a Jet who slowly wants to distance himself from the violence of his gang. The two young people meet at a party and an overwhelming love blossoms that will try to stem the spiral of violence and suspicion that amplifies as their feelings deepen. Tony's death will question everyone, leading the groups to ask themselves, in front of the boy's body, how much sense all that hatred makes.

Harmonic and rhythmic solutions of twentieth-century breath. Bernstein draws from jazz and Latin music. There is no lack of a veiled use of dodecaphony

The score of “West Side Story” is built on a dual impulse: on the one hand, the dramatic need to serve the narrative and the characters; on the other, the desire to explore harmonic and rhythmic solutions of twentieth-century breath. The common thread of the entire score is the tritone (the famous Diabolus in musica) that runs through even the brightest moments. Bernstein organizes the thematic material according to a logic of recurrence and transformation, with sound languages ​​that draw on jazz, blues, Latin music; there is even a veiled use of dodecaphony. All this gives life to a new sound that remains familiar to the listener's ear.

The debate on how the American composer dealt with new compositional trends remains open. In “West Side Story” the dialogue between tonality and atonality is very strong. With the sound created in the score, Bernstein shows what he would later argue in his lectures: tonality and atonality coexist as two complementary expressive poles, each with its own communicative strengths. “Lenny” composes with his own vast musical vocabulary, much larger than that of most musicians of the time. An incubator of suggestions and stimuli that allow him to be prolific and varied but above all to be able to blend symphonic writing with the theatricality of the musical where the orchestral sections, rich in counterpoints and dynamic fluctuations, are never mere accompaniment, but pure musical narration. In the vocal numbers, each character is defined by a harmonic and rhythmic leitmotif: Tony is associated with fluid cantilenas in a major key, often with guitar and double bass accompaniment; Maria presents an ascending and radiant melodic line, woven with intervals of major sixth and major seventh. In contrast, Anita and Bernardo express their passion through descending chromaticisms and syncopated rhythms, influenced by Puerto Rican motifs.

Bernstein demonstrates here his dual soul as a “cultured” composer and creator of a deeply innovative popular language. A genius – of course – that some colleagues of the twentieth century have treated with condescension, derided by the “Taliban” of the avant-garde who consider his production inferior. It is not tolerated, in the “short century” of experimentation, to produce music written to be simply listened to, with an original and recognizable trait, not without harmonic daring but without falling into senseless extremism. Bernstein once again shows his being impeccable from an academic point of view but never manneristic, symbol of a musical tradition that can finally compete with the European one.

“West Side Story” is the first title on stage at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome for the festival of the same name. “It is a festival that embraces different locations in Rome – says Francesco Giambrone, superintendent of the Teatro dell'Opera – and involves international artists, excellences of Italian musicals and all the artists of our theater”. A new production directed by Michele Mariotti with direction by Damiano Michieletto; the sets by Paolo Fantin and the choreography by Sasha Riva and Simone Repele. “For the first time I am directing a musical and leading a cast that goes beyond the ‘usual’ references of an opera theater – says Michieletto – this production then proposes new choreographies capable of enhancing the entire corps de ballet, taking it to the limit of its potential. In 2022, again at Caracalla, we did Bernstein’s ‘Mass’. With ‘West Side Story’ we are writing the second part of a project that could have further developments”.

“Let's try once again to believe in the rights that are the basis of a democracy,” says Damiano Michieletto, director at Caracalla

On stage, an abandoned swimming pool, surrounded by ruins where the torch of freedom symbolically lies: "The American dream has been shattered - continues the director - but the desire is to try once again to believe in the rights that are the basis of a democracy: inclusiveness, opportunity for all, equality, justice. This symbol will welcome the violence and clashes between the two gangs, referring to the tensions that every society has to face, especially when it becomes necessary to keep the sense of democratic values ​​intact". A very current theme in an America where isolationism, fear of others, and closure to foreigners seem to have come back into fashion. Current history also recognized by the director Michele Mariotti, also debuting with the musical: "I have never worked with non-lyrical voices but I see that a wonderful climate is being created under the vehement push of Bernstein's music! The idea of ​​the abandoned swimming pool speaks of the incomplete world we live in, while Maria, the only one who sings with a trained voice, is the person we all would like and should be. About Bernstein the composer, director, popularizer - continues Mariotti - everything has been said. But there is something bigger and that is Bernstein the man, a human being. Only a person with enormous empathy and sensitivity could be able to express what he expressed with music. A giant. Bernstein the musician is the reflection of Bernstein the man, capable of making the heart vibrate".

You damn Lenny, you were right! Once again he was more modern than the moderns. In the music, in the work on the text, in believing strongly in a project far from the canons of the Broadway musical. And as usual the cards have been shuffled, the boundaries have been redefined, the detractors have been silenced. The question arises spontaneously: "But today, more than a musical, what is 'West Side Story'?". Trying to define what it is, where you look at all of Bernstein's production means doing an injustice to its author. His making music is an event, a pure instant of inexplicable understanding. So in the finale, while Tony is dying in Maria's arms, the words sung previously return, this time as a last farewell for a love that here, on this earth, "is not enough"; for love to triumph you have to go elsewhere, holding hands, "somehow, some day".

This is art, something that “revitalizes and re-adapts time and space” and “pays back,” as Bernstein still notes in his diary after the premiere, “for all the agony, for the constant postponements and re-writings. There is a work there; and whether or not it succeeds by Broadway standards, I am now convinced that what we have been dreaming of all these years is possible; because there is a tragic story there, with a deep motif like love versus hate, with all the theatrical risks of themes like death and racial conflict, of young performers, of ‘serious’ music and complicated ballets – and all this has resonated with audiences and critics. I laughed and cried as if I had never heard or seen it before. And I think the reason it succeeded is that we all really collaborated; we were all writing the same show. Even the producers were pursuing the same goals that we had in mind. There was not a whisper about it. of a happy ending. A rare occurrence for Broadway. I am proud and honored to have been a part of it.”

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