LA Opera’s ‘West Side Story’ Is Finger-Snapping Good
/By Truman C. Wang
9/22/2025
Photo credit: Cory Weaver
After a decade of dreaming and planning, the Los Angeles Opera finally delivered the goods with the company premiere of West Side Story—and what an amazing show to kick off their 2025/26 Ruby Anniversary season! This wasn't just another revival; it was a love letter to musical theater wrapped in operatic grandeur.
Nicaraguan-American soprano Gabriella Reyes made her LA Opera debut as Maria with luminous vocals that soared effortlessly from tender ballads to passionate declarations. Her chemistry with Korean tenor Duke Kim's Tony crackled with flying sparks —Kim, whose Romeo I had admired greatly in last season’s Roméo et Juliette, here brought the same intensity and ardor to the Broadway’s doomed lover. When these two sang "Tonight," the audience applauded with approval even before they finished.
Gabriella Reyes as maria, duke kim as tony
Amanda Castro's Anita was nothing short of electric, channeling raw passion and fierce loyalty with a voice that could cut glass. Meanwhile, P. Tucker Worley's Riff (trading the role of A-Rab with Peter Murphy) commanded the stage with swaggering menace, while Yurel Echezarreta (a Broadway and film veteran) brought street-smart intensity to Bernardo.
James Conlon, in his farewell season as Music Director, conducted Bernstein's complex score with great verve and precision. (Amazingly, Bernstein himself never conducted WSS in the theater.) The orchestra, augmented by 7 additional violins and 1 additional bass, revealed intricate layers in this music missed by most Broadway pit bands — from the Latin rhythms that pulse through "America" to the jazz harmonies that make "Cool" so unsettling. Under maestro Conlon's baton, familiar songs felt newly minted.
The LA Opera staging recreates the original 1950’s New York set and costumes from Chicago Lyric Opera (seen in 2019 and 2023). The blue jeans and tenement housing fire escapes onstage contrasted sharply with the elegantly dressed opening night audience on September 20. Francesca Zambello's direction struck a fine balance between opera house grandeur and gritty urban realism. Joshua Bergasse's faithful recreation of Jerome Robbins' iconic choreography had the ensemble moving like poetry in motion—those finger snaps in “Cool” still send shivers down the spine (and were joined by more snaps from the audience.)
Purists might quibble about operatic voices in Broadway roles, but Bernstein, for his 1984 recording, assembled an operatic cast and the London Symphony Orchestra. He wanted full orchestral forces and voices trained to fill grand spaces, such as the 3,156-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
West Side Story opened on September 20 and runs through October 12 with a total of 10 shows. The September 27 show will carry live simulcast at Altadena's Loma Alta Park and at the Santa Monica Pier.
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.