Music and vocal recordings for the 2021 film adaptation of\u00a0West Side Story<\/em><\/a> took place in New York and Los Angeles, under the direction of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, arranger David Newman and music supervisors Matt Sullivan and Jeanine Tesori. West Side Story<\/em>\u2018s original lyricist Stephen Sondheim<\/a> was also present for the recording process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Sondheim\u2019s involvement in the recording process<\/h2>\n\u2018It was really wonderful having Stephen Sondheim in the vocal booth when we were recording,\u2019 music supervisor Jeanine Tesori says. \u2018You felt the spirit of the original show<\/strong><\/a> was right there with us, blessing what we were doing.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Stephen Sondheim is a genius \u2013 a word I use very rarely,\u2019 says Tony Kushner, the playwright who has written for the screenplay for this new\u00a0West Side Story\u00a0<\/em>adaptation for the big screen.<\/p>\n
\u2018Some of the lyrics for West Side Story<\/em> have the brilliant rhyming and wordplay we associate with him, but some of them are simple. Every song in West Side Story<\/em> yields dramatic richness. None is static, each is a beautifully structured progression, each develops the characters, their relationships to each other and to language and class and history, each advances narrative and meaning.\u2019<\/p>\n\n<h2>Steven Spielberg\u2019s approach to prerecording the music and vocals<\/h2>\n<p>The music for the <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/guide-2021-remake-west-side-story\/"\"><strong>film adaptation<\/strong><\/a> was prerecorded and then dubbed over the on-screen performances. This was a first for Steven Spielberg, who had never worked in this way.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I remember on<em> Close Encounters<\/em> we prerecorded the musical dialogue with the mothership a few times because that was part of a scene, but most of the time I\u2019m just making the movie, and then I give it to John Williams, he goes off, writes the score, and then we spend about ten days in the recording studio when the film is all cut together,\u2019 he says. \u2018But this being a musical, it\u2019s a completely different approach.\u2019<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Steven\" spielberg=\"\" side=\"\" story=\"\" this=\"\" is=\"\" our=\"\" time=\"\" century=\"\" studios=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NstZLMeke4s?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3>Working with conductor Gustavo Dudamel<\/h3>\n<p>In creating the film adaptation, Spielberg worked with the Bernstein siblings \u2013 as well as with <em>West Side Story <\/em>lyricist Stephen Sondheim. He says, however, it was working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel that was the biggest thrill.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It was John Williams\u2019s idea for me to ask Gustavo to conduct the entire score, and it was one of John\u2019s many master strokes!\u2019, he says. \u2018Gustavo led the orchestra onto the movie screen with such insight, heart and dynamism, and his astounding musicianship.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/tag\/gustavo-dudamel-reviews\/"\"><strong>Read Gustavo Dudamel reviews here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Bernstein:\" symphonic=\"\" dances=\"\" from=\"\" west=\"\" side=\"\" stories=\"\" dudamel=\"\" sbyov=\"\" bbc=\"\" proms=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J_NelA3ZW4g?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> <ul><li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/guide-2021-remake-west-side-story\/"\">West Side Story: A guide to Steven Spielberg\u2019s 2021 remake of Bernstein\u2019s iconic musical<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/spielbergs-west-side-story-film-adaptation-releases-teaser-trailer-in-oscars-ceremony\/"\"><b>Spielberg\u2019s West Side Story film adaptation releases teaser trailer in Oscars ceremony<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Freya Parr Published: Friday, 26 November 2021 at 12:00 am Music and vocal recordings for the 2021 film adaptation of\u00a0West Side Story took place in New York and Los Angeles, under the direction of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, arranger David Newman and music supervisors Matt Sullivan and Jeanine Tesori. West Side Story\u2018s original lyricist Stephen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":7603,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation.jpg",2000,1331,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation-768x511.jpg",768,511,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation-1536x1022.jpg",1536,1022,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/11\/behind-the-scenes-of-west-side-story-how-the-music-team-recorded-bernsteins-score-for-the-2021-film-adaptation.jpg",2000,1331,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Freya Parr Published: Friday, 26 November 2021 at 12:00 am Music and vocal recordings for the 2021 film adaptation of\u00a0West Side Story took place in New York and Los Angeles, under the direction of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, arranger David Newman and music supervisors Matt Sullivan and Jeanine Tesori. West Side Story\u2018s original lyricist Stephen…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/7602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}