Elizabeth A. Wells

West Side Story (eBook, ePUB)

Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical, Wells presents a major scholarly study of the famous American musical West Side Story, viewing the work from cultural, historical, and musical perspectives. From the "mambo craze" of the 1950s to the work's ongoing permeation of popular culture, Wells looks at the myriad ways in which this canonic musical reflects and refracts American culture. Drawing on primary documentary sources, oral history-including interviews with members of the original creative team such as Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents-and early sketch material, Wells explores the creation and dissemination of West Side Story to diverse audiences. After a short history of West Side Story's creation, each chapter investigates the musical from a different cultural perspective, examining its relationship to the classical canon and Leonard Bernstein's investment in that tradition, juvenile delinquency in the 1950s, feminism and the women of West Side Story, Latin-American and Hispanic influences, and its international reception and distribution. Richly illustrated with images and musical examples and complete with factual appendixes like a chronological timeline, discography, and cast and crew list, this fascinating account is exciting for specialists and non-specialists alike.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks US
• Seitenzahl: 326
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. November 2010
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781461674221
• Artikelnr.: 39142589

Autorenporträt

Elizabeth A. Wells completed her Doctorate in Musicology at Eastman, and is currently Music Historian, and formerly Dean of Arts and Picard-Bell Chair in Music at Mount Allison University (Canada's long-time top-ranked institution). Alongside her many professional accolades, such as winning the AMS Music in American Culture Award for her book on West Side Story, and the AMS Teaching Award for her revolutionary reinvention of the typical undergraduate Music History sequence, she has been coaching academic high-flyers and achievers for decades.