Romeo and Juliet: Tchaikovsky & Bernstein Program notes

Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet

Nino Rota (1911-1979)

World premiere: Zeffirelli’s film was released on March 4, 1968 in London

Rota was like an Italian John Williams: a master at film scoring
The great conductor Arturo Toscanini urged Rota to study in the USA
He was deeply interested in Italian Renaissance music
Two of his ten operas are still regularly performed in Italy
His American film credits include the scores to The Godfather and The Godfather II

Nino Rota was best known for his collaborations with Federico Fellini, including the scores for such classics as La strada (1954), La dolce vita (1963), 8½ (1963), Juliet of the Spirits (1965) and Amarcord (1973). Rota also worked with Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, 1963) and other prominent directors on more than 150 films.

His training was classical. At age 15, Rota moved to Rome to study with Alfredo Casella.

Rota later traveled to America to study composition at the Curtis Institute. He also learned conducting from Fritz Reiner, and became friends with Aaron Copland. Through Copland, he developed an enthusiasm for popular music and Broadway shows.

Rota’s early career in Italy was heavily weighted toward chamber music and orchestral works. After World War II, however, Rota’s stock as a film composer was rising. He found his niche combining teaching with film composition. His gift was fusing traditional elements with a strong populist strain. From 1950 to 1977, he directed the Bari Conservatory, and pursued composition primarily – but not exclusively – in film. His poignant love theme from Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film Romeo and Juliet became a pop hit in 1969 when Andy Williams recorded “A Time for Us,” adding lyrics. Henry Mancini also arranged a successful instrumental version.

**Selections from Romeo and Juliet, Op.64**

Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)

World Premiere: the ballet premiered December 30, 1938 in Brno, Czechoslovakia

Prokofiev was a child prodigy who wrote his first opera at age 9
Chess was a lifelong passion and he was an excellent player
As a student at St. Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev was considered radical and rebellious
Prokofiev lived for years in the USA and France after fleeing the Russian Revolution

No Shakespeare tragedy has had a greater impact in music than Romeo and Juliet. Serge Prokofiev was the first to adapt it as a ballet. He composed most of his Romeo and Juliet in 1935, shortly after returning to the Soviet Union. The premiere was postponed because of political and artistic snags. Frustrated, Prokofiev extracted three groups of excerpts as orchestral suites, arranging their sequence for musical contrast and coherence. Maestro Lewis has chosen five excerpts.

“Montagues and Capulets” illustrates the menacing antipathy between the two clans. “Romeo and Juliet” is the balcony scene, the lovers’ first meeting alone. Prokofiev’s poignant, lyrical music is the ballet’s emotional and dramatic center. The “Death of Tybalt” captures the frenetic atmosphere as Romeo avenges Mercutio’s death through a duel. Tybalt’s death at Romeo’s hand prompts a scene of somber mourning. Romeo is banished.

Learning of Juliet’s death, Romeo purchases poison before returning to Verona, slipping into the Capulet crypt. “Romeo at Juliet’s Grave” combines funeral march, anguish and overwhelming grief. Unaware that she will soon awaken from her drugged sleep, he drinks the poison. In “Death of Juliet,” she regains consciousness only to discover Romeo dead at her side, the flagon empty. Seizing his dagger, she plunges it into her breast. The star-crossed lovers are united in death.

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

World Premiere: February 13 1961 in New York City; the composer conducted the New York Philharmonic

Bernstein legally changed his name from Louis to Leonard at age 16
His Young People’s Concerts classical music to television
Bernstein recorded all of Aaron Copland’s orchestral works as a conductor
He championed the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, helping to make them mainstream
Bernstein he died of emphysema after being a lifelong chain smoker

West Side Story is an American classic. Its unforgettable songs–”Tonight,” “Maria,” “Somewhere,” “America”–attest to the enduring appeal of Arthur Laurents’ book, Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics and perhaps most of all, Leonard Bernstein’s music.

Music and dance tell as much of West Side Story’s tale as do words. Each movement of Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances functions as an independent danced number in his original score. Unlike some instrumental suites that quote sung melodies from an opera or show in an orchestral version, Bernstein focused on the primal energy of the choreographed episodes.

The score is charged with vibrant rhythm and a panorama of instrumental color as varied as the teeming streets of New York. Bernstein’s vivid music captures the atmosphere of the sleazy high school gym, the sweet oblivion of the lovers’ first meeting, the raw danger of the rumble and the surging violence of passion and hatred that course through the story.

Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

World premiere: March 16, 1870 in Moscow; revised 1880 version premiered May 1, 1886 in Tbilisi

Tchaikovsky excelled at writing for orchestra
His symphonies, overtures, concertos and ballet scores are all mainstream
Shakespeare fascinated Tchaikovsky and he wrote pieces based on Hamlet and The Tempest
He enjoyed the outdoors and walked for two hours on days when weather permitted

In the late 1860s, Mily Balakirev was an influential figure in Russian music. Tchaikovsky fell under Balakirev’s influence in 1867. The friendship was unlikely, because Balakirev represented the musical anti-establishment, while Tchaikovsky had been schooled in Western music and favored traditional forms. Nevertheless, at Balakirev’s suggestion, Tchaikovsky began work in October 1869 on an overture based on Romeo and Juliet.

Balakirev accepted the dedication, writing to Tchaikovsky with praise for the love theme and declaring that the overture was his best work to date. Following the first performance, Tchaikovsky withdrew Romeo and Juliet and revised it substantially. Nearly ten years later he revisited the score, altering the coda. That third version is the one we hear.

Tchaikovsky’s approach to Shakespeare’s play is conceptual, rather than narrative. Love, death and fate all manifest themselves in his music. He treats his themes broadly; for example, the sword theme is not limited to the fighting among Mercutio, Romeo and Tybalt, but also symbolizes the enmity between the two feuding families and the lovers’ futile plight. Tchaikovsky’s orchestration is economical and brilliant, with cymbal crashes employed to great effect in rhythmically exciting passages.

The love theme is his greatest achievement. Its two segments, one for Romeo and one for Juliet, are beautifully intertwined and full of longing. Tchaikovsky’s triumphant coda re-emphasizes the love music, providing the lovers with spiritual catharsis and redemption.