Martha Gellhorn in New York City - July, 1958

from Letter from Martha Gellhorn to Leonard Bernstein, July 4 1958, page 402:

I waited for the right time to write about West Side Story but probably the exact right time with never come.. .I know I am not going to do it well enough. How can it be called a “musical comedy”? It’s a musical tragedy, and were it not for the most beautiful music, and the dancing which is like flying, people would not be able to bear to look and see and understand... I was literally frozen with fear. Do you realise there is no laughter in it, no gayety (sic) that comes from delight, from being young? You do, of course, and all of you knew what you were writing about. The immensely …   more >>
cite as

Martha Gellhorn, Letter from Martha Gellhorn to Leonard Bernstein, July 4 1958. In Nigel Simeone (ed.), The Leonard Bernstein Letters (City of New Haven, 2013), p. 402. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1388240330701 accessed: 9 October, 2024

location of experience: New York City

Listeners

Listening to

hide composers
West Side Story
written by Leonard Bernstein

Experience Information

Date/Time July, 1958
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Notes

Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) American journalist, war correspondent and author, married (briefly) to Ernest Hemingway


Originally submitted by Ivan Hewett on Sat, 28 Dec 2013 14:18:50 +0000