Overview

• Dudamel conducts two sold-out performances of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story with the Orquesta del Gran Teatro del Liceu on July 29 and 30.
• He adopts Bernstein’s exclusive 1984 orchestration, enlarging the ensemble with drums, electric and Spanish guitars, mandolin, Latin percussion and jazz instruments while using amplification to balance voices and orchestra.
• Soprano Nadine Sierra and debuting tenor Juan Diego Flórez take the principal roles of María and Tony, collaborating on accent work to ensure linguistic authenticity.
• Dudamel praised Bernstein as an unrivaled orchestrator whose score remains vital and highlighted the musical’s reflection of contemporary immigration challenges through its story of rival New York youth gangs.
• The concerts cap the Liceu’s season finale and coincide with Dudamel’s recent appointment as the next music director of the New York Philharmonic, underscoring his ongoing commitment to Bernstein’s legacy.