Tema: El hilo de los musicales

Desde Cole Porter, Irving Berlin y Rodgers & Hammerstein pasando por Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim y Andrew Lloyd Webber hasta llegar a Michael John Lachiusa, Jeanine Tesori y Jason Robert Brown, charlemos acerca de musicales. ¿Cuales son tus autores favoritos de ayer y hoy? ¿Cast albums preferidos?.

¿Representaciones de las que guardas un grato recuerdo?.


Empiezo con una pregunta. ¿Hay algún admirador en este foro de Pacific Overtures de Sondheim?. A día de hoy me sigue pareciendo una de las obras más brillantes y originales que jamás se han hecho en el medio del teatro musical. Contiene alguna de las letras más bellas jamás escritas por Sondheim, y la música, que hace uso de las escalas e instrumentación japonesas con sentido combinandola con una orquesta sinfónica tradicional, es sublime.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

The bird sings, the wind shies,

The air stirs, the bird shies.

A storm approaches.

(...)


The song stops, the bird flies,

The mind stirs, the heart reply

"There is no other way"


Sublime.



Cartel original del estreno en Broadway, en 1976:






In 1853, Commodore Perry’s forceful display of naval might off the coasts of Japan forced that country to open up trade relations with the rest of the world, thus ending 250 years of complete isolation. Perry’s “pacific overtures” inspired John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim to create a musical, with producer/director Harold Prince suggesting that the story be told from the point of view of the Japanese.

Thus was born Pacific Overtures, an American musical using the techniques of traditional Japanese theater, and interpreted by Asian and Asian-American actors. In keeping with the Kabuki conventions, men played women’s parts; it was narrated by a Reciter, played by Mako; it made extensive use of a “hanamichi,” a ramp that brought the action into the audience; its participants were heavily made up and bewigged; the set changes were handled in full view by stagehands clad in black; and its score featured traditional Japanese instruments that supplemented the standard orchestra conducted by Paul Gemignani. All of this might have made the production too alien to regular Broadway audiences, and despite its brilliant and innovative approach, Pacific Overtures closed after a short run of 193 performances, following its premiere at the Winter Garden Theatre on January 11, 1976. It nonetheless garnered ten Tony Award® nominations, and its score is considered to be one of Sondheim’s best. First LP release: February 1, 1976

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