America

Remembering Chita Rivera

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Chita Rivera, the dynamic American singer, actress, and dancer, passed away last Tuesday, January 30th. She was 91. In 1957, Rivera was catapulted to stardom when she created the role of Anita in the original Broadway production of West Side Story. Among the musical’s iconic moments was Rivera’s dazzling performance in the first act ensemble dance number, America. Later, she recalled the excitement of “watching Leonard Bernstein setting down notes that would later be …

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"America" in Simple and Compound Time

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Conductor, composer, pianist, educator, music philosopher…Leonard Bernstein’s whirlwind career was a complex mix of these versatile roles. Perhaps as a result, when it came to Bernstein’s Broadway music, outside influences were constantly creeping in, from West Side Story’s Copland-like Somewhere Ballet sequence and the dueling-keys of the Finale (a reference to the final bars of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra) to a hint of Puccini in the soaring and harmonically searching Lonely Town from On the Town.  Bernstein couldn’t resist writing a …

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