deeply analyze the opera West Side Story.

Our last class will be on November 24. You have submitted your last CODE. If you were to have been on campus, you would soon be either going home or on your way home for Thanksgiving or for the semester break. If not physically, we can and should try to do this mentally. We will be on winter break with just a few final exams and projects to complete (I know! That’s still a lot of stuff!) What to do for our course?
We have looked at a significant number of art forms: Music, painting, acting, dance, poetry, film, novels, short stories, etc. While combinations of these forms are common, there is one art form that comprises all of them and that is – – are you ready – – opera. It is only in opera that we find all of the art forms combined to produce magnificent works of art: lyrics (poetry), music, narrative plot, choreography, visually powerful and often lavish stage sets, costumes, etc. To be sure, to borrow a concept from the author, Oscar Wilde, who once said, “Coffee is not my cup of tea,” I know that for many if not most people, “Opera is not their cup of tea.” However, we are now armed with knowledge about creative things that “move” people and we would be remiss if we did not try to bring all these Jell-O pan indentations together and tackle the massive challenge of trying to examine and analyze what some have called the grandest art form of them all.
Opera: the ultimate art form?
“I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven” — Richard Wagner
Some might say that Opera is the greatest of art forms, gracefully reflecting the drama of life back at itself. Encompassing all the arts: from music to poetry, from design to choreography, from painting to acting, and beyond. In fact the legendary German composer, Richard Wagner (1818-1883) became obsessed with what he called the Gesamtkunstwerk — the total work of art. He believed his operas were just that. He certainly wasn’t much of a modest chap, but his huge influence on opera cannot be underestimated.

Now, for the opera that I ask you to ‘diva” into (a pun, not a typo! (-:), I think that throughout the semester the semiotics have been pointing us to one composer and that is Leonard Bernstein. As you remember, Bernstein was the one who most powerfully advanced the idea that the arts, especially music, were not only a topic for art/music theorists but for linguists. The arts are forms of language. We learned a lot about Bernstein from Dr. Kogan, the remarkable musician/psychiatrist who enthralled us with his piano work and his lecture on Now, for the opera that I ask you to ‘diva” into (a pun, not a typo! (-:), I think that throughout the semester the semiotics have been pointing us to one composer and that is Leonard Bernstein. As you remember, Bernstein was the one who most powerfully advanced the idea that the arts, especially music, were not only a topic for art/music theorists but for linguists. The arts are forms of language. We learned a lot about Bernstein from Dr. Kogan, the remarkable musician/psychiatrist who enthralled us with his piano work and his lecture the life of this master composer and conductor. Bernstein’s masterpiece opera–in modern parlance, the broadway musical–is West Side Story.

To get started, here (链接到外部网站。) is a brief history of the show. It will tell you about how it came to be. You’ll see that even Lin Manuel-Miranda, who, in Hamilton, has created what will arguably eventually replace West Side Story as the greatest modern opera, was involved in more recent productions of Bernstein’s work.
Next, if you look in the Modules section here in Canvas and go to library reserves, you will find a link to the 1961 film version of West Side Story (adding this medium to the multiplicity of combined art forms). Was this film a success? RU kidding?! See the excerpt from Wikipedia below!

So we have a groundbreaking work in the history of musical theater and a film which won ten Academy Awards. No one could say “My kid could do that.” (Except Jennie and Samuel Bernstein.) No one would argue that this is an artistic masterpiece.
So what is your task? Simple. 😊
Watch the film once without stopping. Drink it all in. Allow it to impact you. Be a model viewer. Then, become the scholars that you are. Learn about the story (hint: Shakespeare–Romeo and Juliet, but there are other classic stories like this). Get the lyrics (out there in the muffin top) and examine some songs as poetry, without the music. Listen to the music–focus on it. Fast, slow, loud soft. (“The most beautiful sound I ever heard. Maria. Maria. Say it loud and there’s music playing. Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.”) What can you say about the sets for the film? The language of the architecture. The locations–the schoolyard, the fire escape, etc. There are “signs” everywhere. The dancing! Watch some of the dances without the sound. You know how to do this. How are emotions depicted? How are the minds of the characters represented? What are their personalities like? What psychological theories can you apply to the story/characters? (Hint: the circumplex model is at work everywhere!!) What is the language of West Side Story? What is is saying to us? Examine all of the art form components and then see how they are all brought together to create the overall effect. There are many ways to do this–all perfectly OK. Some of you will focus on one art form more than the others, but look at them all. Also, some of you will want to look more at the psychological theories that help us as scholars and viewers to understand the reasons why this opera has had such a powerful effect for so long.
Lots to do in a 15 page paper. Be selective. Maybe look at two songs deeply–the music and the poetry of the lyrics. A couple of dances. Costumes. Settings. A couple of characters. A couple of important scenes, perhaps.
I hope you get the idea. Look at all of the art forms and how they relate to each other. Move from the whole (first uninterrupted viewing) to some specific analysis and then go back to the grand level of impact wherein all of the parts are combined as they hit your sensory and perceptual systems and those of the people in the theater.
Most of all, have fun. Use your encyclopedia. Explore what others have said about West Side Story. Ask your parents or grandparents. Know the show at the muffin level. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
If you have questions or want to run an idea by me, please send me an email. I will be checking my mailbox everyday between our last class and the day the project is due.