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Pleasure to come across this thoughtful conversation.

david W is the best classical pianist ever, he is also theos grandad

I've watched "Making of.." about a dozen times or more in the past 30 years. And this is a wonderful insight about what happened beside all the great things you can see in the documentary. Very well narrated! ♥

Great documen;tary on the musical but, I must say, that the singers, great opera singers for sure, were just terrible for this genre...kind of like having the rolling stones sing in a Verdi opera...this is for young voices..not some mid forties voices that are Italian..sorry, in fact, it is the worst rendition of this I ever heard...I much prefer some of the high school versions on you tube such as the Stratford high school version out of Texas...p.s. the new movie also sucks the big one

What a brilliant storyteller with a real film makers sense of keeping things engaging. Loved his documentary!

What a great tribute. Thank you for recording it and speaking in it now.

Incredibly interesting! Thank you for recoding and sharing this important story.

Is the documentary streaming anywhere? So far it looks like you have to buy the dvd.

So wonderful to view this after just watching Maestro. Simply fabulous story telling by Chris.

In the days when BBC TV took classical music seriously

Splendid video! Mr. Swann is very in depth and detailed. Truly wonderful!

Absolutely wonderful. ❤️🙏

Right at the beginning. If he means Placido Domingo, he is Spanish, not Mexican. Compromises everything that follows.

I have no idea why musical theater singers were not utilized?! Insane.

I could never understand why Carreras was chosen to sing Tony; why choose any singer with a Spanish accent, or anyone but an American to sing Tony, a New York born teenaged character, who is a contrast & antagonist to Bernardo, leader of the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks? It didn’t work in more ways than that Carreras could not sing jazz.

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Astounding to get the inside scoop from Swann.

I bet Sondheim hated operas because the librettos were always so weak.

How absolutely extraordinary. What could have easily been just a conventional recounting of an event I thought I knew everything about, became instead every bit as enthralling a tale as the musical being discussed. Mr. Swann had me riveted throughout, and in 35 minutes had me chortling, and near tears several times. Thank you for sharing this.

After just watching Maestro on Netflix, ( which i profoundly enjoyed) - I am finding myself in a rabbit hole on youtube re-watching some Young Peoples concerts @ lincoln center I went to in my elementary school years and seeing the profound impact they had on me. Then i turned to 'the making of west side story' in 1985 and interviews with Sondheim amongst others on Lenny. I just found this one and really enjoyed it. Thank you for posting. West Side Story, in my opinion is a perfect musical and my most favorite.

"Leonard tried to kiss me." Said in passing!

Fantastic can feel the vibe of Maestro Bernstein in the reinactment of the meetings very good and accurate great and entertaining presentation thank-you.I bet he was fun to be with.

What a fabulous, totally frank account. Having seen the film and been impressed by the 'backroom' skills of John McClure, purely on the off-chance I emailed the latter and, to my great surprise, received a reply. His wife said he'd found my approach refreshing, as he was usually contacted purely for self-serving reasons and was genuinely grateful, despite his own illustrious career, that someone was seeking simply to offer their thanks and acknowledgment of his own talents. I still remain in contact with Mr McClure's widow and should be delighted to hear Mr Swann's impressions of John McClure during this somewhat difficult project - especially as Mr Swann mentions (at 26:52) that he'd 'not been particuarly nice' to Mr McClure!. Many thanks from Oxford for this fascinating account!

I'm gathering from the comments that this interview is an original piece made by this channel's owner? If so, thanks for the great interview. And if not, thanks for finding this great interview. Just watched the film yesterday and I'm always more interested in the behind the scenes story than the actual story. Although in this case, the actual story IS a behind the scenes story, so it's a total win for me! Too bad they didnt find some kickass US pop singer to cover the Tony part. Steve Perry probably coulda handled it, and I'm sure there are others that I can't think of at the moment. Or maybe a jazzer, although I don't know of any names off the top of my head in that departnent either. But heck, if they hadn't cast Carraras, there wouldn't he quite the drama in that film, so maybe it'd wouldn't be so great. Anyway, thanks again.

Plácido Domingo is Spanish, not Mexican although he was born in Mexico, I believe. He now lives in Madrid. The problem, as others have commented is that both Plácido Domingo and Jose Carreras are Spanish so they had trouble with the American-ness of the accent and the Jazz rhythms.

He's well-meaning, but this is an impossibly convoluted spin on what was a simple disaster from day one, due to Bernstein's manager. Humphrey Burton saved the day. I was there. In fact, I'm in the opening shot. I hope other producers watch this and do their homework.

The joke about Odile/Odette was very funny.

This is brilliant 👍

Gloriously detailed recollections of an extraordinary experience. Huge congrats all!

Thank you so much for posting. Christopher Swann in a great and gracious storyteller.

So interesting hearing all the aspects of the making of. I'd like to see the documentary

What a wonderful explanation of the difference between classically trained and jazzers. And to think, one of THE best jazz trumpeters was playing lead. He had no problems playing with the conductor.

16;23 Alberto Remedios? Never in a million years! He was a British Wagner tenor born in 1935, and frankly not that known outside the London Coliseum!

I had heard that Jerry Hadley had been asked to sing Tony. I mean, anyone would’ve been better than Carreras, with the accent and a wobble that no young Tony would have. He single-handedly sank the recording. Troyanos was marvelous, Ollmann was great, and Kiri was delightful, despite not sounding like a young girl.

Wow! I am grateful that Mr. Swann's achievement in completing this documentary had the effect of invigorating Mr. Bernstein's career energy and sense of purpose during the final phase of his career.

❤

Now I understand. Thank you, Christopher Swann, for your wonderfully insightful explanation.

This is a real gift for those who’ve seen the film which is in part both brilliant and painful. The film really points up the dangers having magnificent classical voices interpret essentially populist music. I remember poor Carreras - Golden Voice and all -struggling with the syncopation in much of Bernstein’s score. Thanks so much for the “skivvy.”

I enjoyed his documentary, but Jesus what a narcissistic, crashing bore Swann is. And the story about Lenny kissing him is in incredibly poor taste (and, I suspect, made up).

It's amazing to me what a missed opportunity Bernstein's final take of "West Side Story" ended up as. Carreras as Tony is like asking Axl Rose to sing Calaf in Turandot.

What a wonderful interview! Very very interesting. I love it. Thank you so much!

To hear that marvellous soft, evocative voice intone ... 'Inside the head of Liz Truss ...' recalls the finest canon of political portraits ever produced by one broadcaster. He has been garlanded from time to time, but nothing like his contribution to British politics and life properly deserves. I'd have to say that I hope there aren't thousands of aspiring Cockerell's out there. An aspect of our political media scene these days is that there are too many voices and far too much partisan coverage. Cockerell was out there as singular voice, but with a great sense of journalistic detachment . He was eminently trustworthy in that regard and the politicians he'd interview would be more frank and open than in the average daytime knockabout where they'd invariably have their guard up.

Bernstein wrote the greatest musical of all time. He wanted to be taken seriously as a classical composer but he lived in a time not realizing that musical theatre IS the opera of our time. His work in popular music is his legacy as a composer.

Is this an excerpt of a larger documentary?

Never mind the sound, the homophobia is surprising, and ignorant.

It's unfortunate that the sound quality is so poor, and that Swann mumbles so much.

chris swann - master story teller!

This interview is gold!

AND...this interview is as priceless as the documentary. Amazing.

What a project to be a part of! Thank you for posting this rare interview on the infamous WSS album/video of the 80s.