Director Lotte de Beer and conductor Ben Glassberg were probably in a hurry: their new “West Side Story” is full of speed, dance and youthful energy. But music and emotion fall by the wayside.
“I don’t know why, it all happened so quickly”: Chino utters these words when he tells Maria the terrible news of the death of her brother Bernardo. The spiral of violence between the youth gangs of “Sharks” and “Jets” will continue to spiral, and Maria and Tony’s happiness in love will have no chance…
Chino’s stammered sentence – German dialogues are spoken, English is sung – remains in your memory, beyond the unanimous audience cheers after this premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” at the Volksoper. Because “quickly” is one of the keywords here – and unfortunately also “not knowing why”.
The speed of the quick scene changes is pleasing. In front of the black wall on the revolving stage, there is enough scope for the energetic choreographies to develop: the “Sharks” in the Puerto Rican piece, here with a believably more ethnically diverse cast, tend to the suppleness of Latin American standards; The “Jets”, on the other hand, differentiate themselves from this with their “cooler”, harder, edgier style. The cast does a remarkable job here – and undoubtedly marks the highlight of the production.
You don’t have to knead it straight away like amber
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