Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story -- The Making of the Recording

Starring: Kiri Te Kanawa, Leonard Bernstein Director: Christopher Swann Original UK Premiere: 1985 Dvd Release: 11th February, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: NTSC, PAL, Region 0 Encoding Subtitled In: Cantonese Chinese, French, German, Italian

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DVD Extras: Though filmed for British television, Deutsche Grammophon have chosen to release a single region-free DVD for the entire world. Unfortunately this means the disc is in NTSC format rather than PAL, & requires an NTSC-compatible television for playback. It also means that while the sound has been effectively remastered for PCM stereo the picture shows all the signs of a bad NTSC copy--weak, washed-out colours & poor definition with a serious lack of detail. Most videos are far better. The DVD has subtitles in German, French, Spanish & Chinese. There are no extras, though the booklet adapts an interesting article by producer Humphrey Burton which originally appeared in Gramophone magazine in 1985.--

Filmed in 1984 for the BBC, the feature-length documentary Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story follows the composer through one week as he records the first-ever complete album of his musical theatre masterpiece. Virtually the entire documentary takes place in a New York recording studio with a pick-up orchestra, session singers & headliners Kiri Te Kanawa , José Carreras , Tatiana Troyanos & Kurt Ollmann . The 89-minute programme alternates rehearsal footage with complete final takes of the main numbers, including Tonight, America, & Maria, with a limited amount of comment from the principal players. Te Kanawa explains how much the music means to her, Troyanos notes how she grew-up in the very streets depicted on stage & Carreras provides a rare moment of tension when a session ends unsatisfactorily. Bernstein himself is by turns commanding, charming, enthusiastic or weary. For anyone wanting an extensive insight into what happens as a major album is recorded this is fascinating, though others who just want to enjoy the wonderful music will be better served by the resultant two-CD set.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ONZ AC DBE, is a well-known New Zealander opera singer of Māori ancestry. In 1981, she was seen & heard around the world by an estimated 600 million people when she sang Handels Let the Bright Seraphim at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales & Lady Diana Spencer. Te Kanawa was born in Gisborne, New Zealand. She was adopted as an infant & little is known about her birth parents. In her teens & early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star & popular entertainer at clubs in New Zealand. She was also formally trained in operatic singing by the celebrated Dame Sister Mary Leo, who was already New Zealand s most well-known opera coach. She then began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano but later developed into a soprano. Her recording of the Nuns Chorus from the Strauss operetta Casanova was New Zealands first-ever gold record. In 1965, she won the prestigious Mobil Song Quest, entered by all types of singers, jazz, pop & classical, with her performance of Puccinis Love & Music from Tosca. As the winner, she received a grant to study in London. Posters Of Die Fledermaus

Editors Choice: Strauss, Royal Opera House, Arabella, Otello, San Francisco Opera, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Die Fledermaus, View DVDology

Leonard Bernstein was an American composer & orchestra conductor. Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts & studied at Harvard & the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was highly regarded as a conductor, composer, pianist & educator. He is probably best known to the public as long time music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; for conducting concerts by many of the worlds leading orchestras; & for writing the music for the musical West Side Story. All told, he wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals & numerous other pieces. Bernsteins politics were decidedly left wing, but unlike some of his contemporaries, he was not blacklisted in the 1950s. In the late 1960s & early 1970s he actively supported groups such as the Black Panthers & publicly opposed the Vietnam War. During the 1960s, he became a well-known figure in the US through his series of Young Peoples Concerts for US public television. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethovens Symphony No. 9 as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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