Opera Scotland

Leonard Bernstein Suggest updates

Born Lawrence, Massachusetts, 25 August 1918.

Died New York, 14 October 1990.

American conductor, composer and pianist.

Leonard Bernstein was undoubtedly one of the most successful and popular American composers of the post-war era. He will undoubtedly also be remembered in Scotland for his many appearances as a conductor at the Edinburgh Festival. In pertnership especially with the London Symphony Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus, his performances in the Usher Hall ranged from his own Chichester Psalms to Mahler's enormous Second Symphony 'Resurrection'. Candide was brought to the Festival in a fresh and vigorous production by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and was later staged by Jonathan Miller for Scottish Opera. The intimate Trouble in Tahiti featured in the early years of Ledlanet, while his most famous work, the spectacular musical West Side Story has appeared a number of times in commercial tours.

Stage works produced in Scotland are shown in bold:

01   On The Town (New York 1944) (Comden, Green & cpsr)

02   Trouble in Tahiti (Waltham, Mass. 1952) (cpsr)

03   Wonderful Town (New York 1953) (Fields & Chodorov; Comden & Green)

04   Candide (New York 1956, rev 1973) (Hellman, rev Wheeler; Wilbur, Latouche & Parker, rev Sondheim)                                                               

05   West Side Story (Washington DC 1957) (Laurents; Sondheim)

06   Mass (Washington DC 1971) (Liturgy, Schwartz & cpsr)

07   1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (New York 1976) (Lerner)

08   A Quiet Place (Houston 1983, rev Milan 1984) (Wadsworth)