Leonard Bernstein : West Side Story

   in Opera Now (Sep, 2014)
Nearly 60 years after its premiere, West Side Story continues to provoke debate about whether it can be classed as an opera – and what that really means anyway. It’s a discussion complicated by the fact that the three recordings made during Bernstein’s own lifetime are radically different: the original 1957 Broadway version, with singing actors and an ensemble of around 30 instrumentalists; the 1961 film soundtrack, also with singing actors but a much bigger, more lush-sounding orchestra; and Bernstein’s own 1984 recording with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a cast of operatic voices led by Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras.

This new recording by Michael Tilson Thomas and the …