Leonard Bernstein dubbed into other languages. All of them were released on DVD by Kultur Video (half of them in 2013). Around the time he was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic, and living opposite Carnegie Hall at The Osborne, Bernstein composed the music for two shows. The first was for the operetta "Candide", which was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman based on Voltaire's novella. The second was Bernstein's collaboration with the choreographer Jerome Robbins, the writer Arthur Laurents, and the lyricist Stephen Sondheim to produce the musical "West Side Story". The first three had
Stephen Sondheim write for the theatre, so I wanted someone who did not disdain theatre music." Barrow suggested that Sondheim study with Milton Babbitt, who Sondheim described as "a frustrated show composer" with whom he formed "a perfect combination". When he met Babbitt, he was working on a musical for Mary Martin based on the myth of Helen of Troy. Sondheim and Babbitt would meet once a week in New York City for four hours (at the time, Babbitt was teaching at Princeton University). According to Sondheim, they spent the first hour dissecting Rodgers and Hart or George Gershwin or studying Babbitt's