The Richard Rodgers Reader by Geoffrey Block

Author:Geoffrey Block [Block, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Moving in the Direction of Opera"

The present printed selection from the best-selling The Joy of Music I concludes what was originally a telecast on the American musical delivered by conductor, composer, pianist, and educator Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). First seen on the Omnibus series, October 7,1956, the lecture was broadcast only two months before the debut of his own Candide (December 1,1956) and less than a year before West Side Story (September 26,1957). After exploring the continuum of musical theater from the variety show to Wagnerian music drama (with revue, operetta, comic opera, opera buffa, opera comique, and grand opera somewhere in between), Bernstein presents the history of the American musical as a period of growth from primitive roots in 1866 to the blossoming of the past fifteen years, i.e., from childhood and "young manhood" to the "prime of life" musicals of the Rodgers and Hammerstein era. He interprets the opening scene between Nellie and Emile de Becque—the program included a performance of "Twin Soliloquies" and "Some Enchanted Evening"—as a move "toward opera but in our own way" and as a recent high point in a progressive evolution toward integration of music and other elements. Despite its recent maturity, however, Bernstein sees the genre as ripe for a new Mozart, a genius who can transform a "popular form" into a "work of art." On the eve of Candide and West Side Story one wonders whether Bernstein nurtured a hope that he himself would be destined to lead the musical to these new heights.

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