Omnibus: Bernstein and Welles

Another series of DVDs that has kept me rapt feature the 1950s show Omnibus, mostly broadcast on Sunday afternoons. I know, most people want to watch the first season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or True Blood but I’m stuck in the first decade of organized television. (TV was invented in the 20s but not successfully launched until after WWII.)
Omnibus was a cultural arts cavalcade that ran 90-minutes and was hosted by Alistair Cooke. The show was usually broadcast live, which makes the extended performances and staging even more incredible. Make no mistake, the quality is hardly high-def, an upgraded version of whatever source material that even exists. But the fulfillment practically defies expectations. We’re talking about points of view on music and drama that occur before JFK, The Beatles, heavy metal or any other similar harbinger of our modern times.
Two releases taken from the Omnibus series are Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus and Orson Welles King Lear. The latter marks the first television appearance of Orson Welles and the telecast was helmed by Peter Brooks. Somehow Lear is honed to under one-and-a-half hours while a couple of hours of extras include other Omnibus-Shakespeare outings, like a scene from Merry Wives of Windsor in the original brogue or dialect of the time. And yes, they were discussing Francis Bacon having penned Shakespeare in the 50s.
The Bernstein eps are like a master’s class in music. A four-disc set examines opera, Beethoven’s Fifth, the histories of jazz, musical theater, conducting and modern music. Bernstein has a natural charisma and the ability to put advanced notions into everyday words. As Carl Sagan was to science, Bernstein is to music and Omnibus marks his original foray into television. Despite the black-and-white format the live direction has occasional flourishes, like when an orchestra is revealed through lighting. Another sign of live broadcast is the way Bernstein often clears his throat.