Saturday, November 10, 2018

Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story studio-takes



I don't know what's going on here. Why is this interesting?

In YouTube comments I learn:

* The singer is José Carreras.

* He has cancer as yet undiagnosed at this time.

* Leonard Bernstein is flirting with him, "Carreras. I'll never stop saying Carreras" for example.

* Carreras hates it so much he pretends to not understand.

* Carreras mutters under his breath, "Ma porco iddio"   (But pig god.)

* Bernstein was alcoholic.

* Opinion that Carreras was miscast. Italian as American boy. But then Natalie Wood played a Puerto Rican.

* All Carreras wanted was to try singing a part of it alone. But NooOOoo. 

The commenters all have tremendous respect for everyone involved. They're enthralled with seeing this.

1 comment:

The Dude said...

I remember that recording - I laughed at Carreras' accent even at that time. He was a terrible choice for that role, but Lenny gets what Lenny wants, I suppose.

On a side note, one of my bosses at Amdahl was an all state oboe player in New York and was conducted by Lenny himself. My friend, who was brilliant in a number of fields, said that Lenny was the worst conductor he ever played for. Having watched him conduct over the years I cannot disagree. But he was a flighty emotional tyrant.