A Streetcar Named Desire (opera)

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This article is about the opera adoptation of the Tennessee Williams play. For other uses, see A Streetcar Named Desire.

A Streetcar Named Desire is an opera composed by André Previn with a libretto by Philip Littell in 1995. It is based on the play by Tennessee Williams and received its premiere at the San Francisco Opera during the 1998-99 season.

Cast:

Blanche - Renée Fleming

Stanley - Rod Gilfry (formerly Rodney Gilfry)

Stella - Elizabeth Futral

Mitch - Anthony Dean Griffey

Eunice - Judith Forst

Steve - Matthew Lord

Newspaper Collector -Jeffrey Lentz

The Mexican - Josepha Gayer

Pablo - Luis Oropeza

The Doctor - Ray Reinhardt

The Nurse - Lynne Soffer

Technical:

Conductor - André Previn

Stage Director - Colin Graham

Sets - Michael Yeargan

Lighting - Thomas J. Munn

As noted by Bernard Holland in his review in the New York Times of 21 September 1998, A Streetcar Named Desire is so operatic as a play that one wonders why more than 50 years have passed since its Broadway opening with no opera of note being made of it. ….The new setting of Tennessee Williams's play, with music by Andre Previn and a libretto by Philip Littell, answered a few questions and asked others. …..First of all, it sings very well. Mr. Previn has a fine ear for voices. He knows how to flatter and coax it and send it gracefully from one musical episode to the next…..one had the impression that Mr. Previn had been writing for the musical theater all his life.”

Regarding the music, Holland notes: “There are angry clashes of harmony and key, many Straussian gestures, sweet-as-honey popular melody and the kinds of corporate noodling and mumbling among the strings native to a Ligeti or a Penderecki. Mr. Previn is not ashamed to incorporate Hollywood code words, especially the wailing thrusts of saxophone, trumpet and clarinet to introduce dissolution and lurid sex.”

In his estimation of the main singers, Holland comments: “as beautifully as Renee Fleming sings and as assiduously as she pursues the part, she leaves a hole in the opera that nothing around it can fill. Ms. Fleming does everything an opera singer can do, but I am not sure that Blanche is a character that opera can ever reach. As Stanley in a baritone part, Rodney Gilfry sings strongly and summons the necessary physical menace. Elizabeth Futral made Stella a satisfying operatic character (and) Anthony Dean Griffey sang touchingly and surely in the tenor role of Mitch.”

[edit] Non-US performances

Opera Ireland is performing the opera in November 2006 in Dublin. Opera Australia is to perform this work in its 2007 season at the Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House, under the musical direction of Richard Hickox.