Trouble in Tahiti

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Trouble in Tahiti is a short opera composed by Leonard Bernstein to an English libretto written by himself. It received its first performance on 12 June 1952 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Set in the affluence of a nameless American suburb (the characters at one point name a handful of fairly toney suburbs that it could have been set in), the story shows the disenchantment of Dinah with her philandering husband Sam, who is more interested in his career than in his family. They effect a reconcilement of sorts at the end of the opera, although it is doubtful that it will last.

Musically, Bernstein indulges in many of the styles he is most recognized for. Much of the music showcases many of Bernstein's most appealing qualities: the heroine's aria has a wistful melancholy that reminds us of Aaron Copland's earlier vernacular works and of Bernstein's later writing in West Side Story, while the jazzy interludes harken back to the score Bernstein wrote for On The Town.

Bernstein later wrote a sequel to the opera, A Quiet Place.

The Opera is known for its highly dramatic, twisted, confusing stories. The pyrotechnics of it all is part of the reason for its popularity. Grandiose scenic designs and over the top costumes all play a part in the pure spectacle of the opera experience. What would happen if you stripped all that away? What would you be left with? The answer is simple; emotion and music. Leonard Bernstein created an opera with only two characters, hardly any scenery and costumes that are plain and ordinary. As for the plot, barely anything happens. It’s a simple opera whose very simplicity enables the heart breaking longing and regret of the characters to be of paramount importance.

Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein was composed entirely by himself. He even wrote the libretto . It was written about a very personal subject to him, his family. While it was rumored that the troubled young couple was based on Leonard Berstein himself and his new bride, Felicia Monealegre, there was another more plausible rumor that the story was based on the marriage of Bernstein’s own mother and father . There are only two characters in this opera, a married couple, Sam and Dinah. In the original libretto the two characters names are Sam and Jenni, which are the names of Bernstein’s mother and father. The name Jennie was later turned into Dinah but this name is still close within the family. Dinah is the name of Bernstein’s grandmother . A boy is often referred to throughout but is never seen or heard from. This boy is thought to be Bernstein. In the opening scene there is talk of the boy’s school play that Sam says he will not attend so he can go to his own handball tournament. David Wright, a biographer of Bernstein, cites “a painful incident in the composer’s boyhood, when his father missed his debut playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Boston Public School Orchestra, which has been incorporated in the opera’s plot.” It has been said that this opera was written as a type of revenge on his father for missing Bernstein’s performance as a child. Bernstein’s sister was quoted saying, “Our parents were mismated, mismatched, both interesting, both interesting and good people who should never have been married.” In the opera there is also a secretary spoken of and even being spoken to in certain arias but we again never see or hear from her. Bernstein had a very solid idea about what he wanted this opera to be. He had two main points he wanted to achieve through this opera. The first was “to see if the vernacular, the American vernacular – both musical and lingual, linguistic – could be handled in something you could call an opera, that would still not have the phoniness of operatic production and quality.” His second point was in trying to avoid the use of recitative. He is quoted saying “…here I may have cheated a little bit in the sense that it might be said that I’m not telling a story. In other words, I’m not really advancing a plot, since the plot of Trouble in Tahiti is a day in the life of this married couple.”

Bernstein tried to make his opera as real as possible. He wanted everything about it to be believable. He even went to great lengths to write in language that would be heard in every day speech during that time. “All the music [in Trouble in Tahiti] derives from American vernacular roots, as do the words. And the words are very carefully set so that they will sound in the American cadence and with the American kind of syncopated, almost slurred quality”

There is a chorus in this opera as well. It is comprised of only three people and in both sound and actions are similar to a 1950’s radio show. They are even huddled around a microphone when they come out to sing. Some people view this trio as the comic relief for a horrifically sad story but they are meant as a keen sense of irony throughout the opera. They are always singing about how great the suburban middle class life is while listing off everything that is the stereotyped 1950’s American ideal. They point out that this married couple has all of these things continually then the singers are often cut off by a fight between the two or a miserable lament. Just when the opera starts to get too heavy and some true emotions might be spoken by one of the couple they jump in and start their happy Andrew sisters like song about the “Morning Sun.”

The opera opens to a happy and bubbly tune. The trio enters and sings sarcastically of the glorious 1950’s American life in the suburbs. They trail off while naming random suburban cities that this story could possibly take place in. This leads to the unhappy young couple-Dinah and Sam-sitting down for their morning meal. Both are obviously quite angry at each other as they sit and let the anger grow. Finally, Sam explodes in his rage and sings, “How could you say the things that you did?” and a fight ensues. This seems to be an all too familiar scene in the household. Sam proclaims that his handball tournament is much more important than his sons school play and informs his wife that he won’t be attending the evenings performance with her. Dinah is furious and appalled with her husband’s actions and accuses him of not caring and even of having an affair with his secretary. She sees the reaction this stirs in her husband and decides not to push him too far. She instead changes the subject and gets up to leave while singing “I’m sick of this life, day after day of the same humiliation” as she grabs her coat and hat. The bickering continues until Sam, who is tired of fighting, tells Dinah very calmly that they need to stop bickering and will talk about their problems later in the evening. Dinah and Sam are now both calm until Dinah asks for some money to pay for her doctor. This angers Sam once again and he storms out of the house.

As the day moves forward Sam is shown in his office making phone calls. He is a very charming and sly businessman. He always gets what he wants and easily convinces everyone he speaks with to “see it [his] way.” After each client Sam speaks to the trio appears circling around as they sing to him of his genius and amazing business skills. They even call him an angel, a “big-hearted man.”

As the trio trails off about the wonderfulness of Sam we see Dinah. She is at a psychiatrist’s office sitting on a chaise. She looks distraught and eventually starts to tell the doctor of the dream she had the previous night. In her dream, Dinah is standing in a garden where all the plants have “gone to seed”. She paints a picture of a lonely dead place. No life is found there except for her as she wanders through. She then hears a voice calling to her. The voice seems to calm her from her excited and scared state while in the garden. The voice is her father. It is calling to her to leave the garden immediately. She wants to leave but seems to be lost. There is no sign or any path to tell her how to get away. Just then she hears a second voice. It is very hard to hear but the words are now burned into her memory. “There is a garden: come with me… a shining garden. Come and see. There love will teach us harmony and grace… Then love will lead us to a quiet place”. The lovely sound of this voice intrigues her and she runs towards it. Everything around her becomes more frightening with every step. The ground starts to give way beneath her but she is getting closer to the mysterious voice so she continues on. Dinah trails off as she sings, “there is a garden…” and we once again see Sam in his office.

Sam has called in his secretary to ask if she recalls any time where he has made a pass at her. The imaginary secretary remains silent but Sam continues on saying “I’d forgotten that” and then informs her that it was an accident and that she should forget that it ever happened. We once again see Dinah right where we left her. She has been continuing the story of her dream. Desire has now taken over her. All she wants is to touch the face and hand of this mysterious voice. She finally sees his face and once again goes running to him. When she finally approaches him he vanishes leaving her in the garden reaching out to nothing but smoke and she awakes.

Dinah leaves her doctor’s office and is walking in the street when she bumps into her husband, Sam. They are startled to see each other and immediately start making up stories about where they are going and what they are doing. They both say they are having lunch with someone else as an excuse to not eat together. Finally, Sam puts forth a little effort and begins to say “Too bad we can’t have lunch togeth…” but Dinah quickly interrupts him saying, “I must run, I’m late already. See you tonight”. The couple begins to walk away from each other but is stopped abruptly by the realization of what just took place. While they stand on opposite sides of the stage with their backs turned toward each other they sing “Why, why, why, did I have to lie” in dissonant tones. They start to list off memories from when they were truly happy with each other. The things about each other that made them fall in love are appearing before them. Then Dinah snaps out of her daydream about the past. “That was then. Years have gone, nearly ten; and what has happened to dull the mystery?” She remembers her dream she had the previous night. “And where is our garden with a quiet place… Can’t we find the way back to the garden where we began?” Dinah turns to see her husband. She so desperately wants to fix their problems but can’t seem to find the right words. She sees his back turned to her and begins to walk away. Just as she is leaving Sam turns to see his wife but only sees her back as she is leaving and he himself leaves feeling defeated and losing hope.

The trio appears again and sings of the wonderful joys of married life. They fade out and we see Sam at his gym. He has just won the handball tournament. As he is staring at his trophy he begins to sing about the two types of men in the world. “There are men who can make it, and men who cannot.” He is singing about how there are winners and there are losers and that the only acceptable type of man to be, which he tells himself that he is, is a winner. “For they always, always, always, always will win.”

Dinah is next seen in a hat shop. She come in and sings of a terrible movie she just saw entitled “Trouble in Tahiti”. She goes into great detail explaining and mocking the ridiculous plot of the movie but seems to get entangled in the love story. When she sings of the romantic lead its as if it is her he is in love with. She reaches out to him starts dancing around and is now a part of the story she is telling. Just as she is in full swing and letting herself be one with the story and the “Island magic” she snaps out of it. “What a terrible, awful, movie” she repeats. She then remembers that Sam’s dinner needs to be on the table by the time he gets home and runs off back to her sullen lonely life.

The final scene of the opera is back at the couple’s home. Dinah has just put dinner on the table and Sam is standing outside the front door debating whether or not to enter. He is still singing his song about how he is a winner but it now has a different twist to it. “There’s a law that a man has to pay for what he gets, and that even the winner must pay through the nose, for there always arrives a moment when the payments begin; and I have to go in…” He finally enters as the trio sings of bringing the “loved ones” together with “evening pleasures”. Dinah is now knitting and Sam is reading the paper. It is a perfect picture of what a happy life should look like but there is palpable tension in the room. Sam, who is trying, asks Dinah to talk. Pretending to be unaware of any problems she replies, “about what dear?” They continue on carefully and it seems like slight progress is being made. Unfortunately they go back to their old ways and begin bickering again. Dinah gives it one last chance. She is reaching out for that once happy life she had one final time. She tells Sam of the carpenter who came and how his work should look pretty. Sam has now begun completely ignoring her. Once and for all Dinah gives up. Eventually Sam asks her what she said. Dinah, in a monotone voice replies, “It doesn’t matter.” Sam now gives it one last chance and asks her to go see the new movie “Trouble in Tahiti” with him. Instead of telling him that she already saw the movie and hated it or instead of trying to talk one more time with him and hopefully fix their problems Dinah turns to Sam and says, “Sure, why not, anything.” And they get up to get their coats. As they separate to get their things they begin to sing of whether or not there is something still left for them in their marriage. Will they ever find that happiness again? They meet up again and Sam offers his arm. In an almost catatonic state Dinah accepts Sam’s arm and lets go of her hope for the “mysterious voice” or the “Island magic” and walks out, as is her duty, with her husband. The chorus follows behind them and sings “Island magic” as it fades to an empty house.

In Trouble in Tahiti nothing terribly important occurs. There is no story of death and destruction, no murders or suicides, no lovesick heroines or suicidal heroes. It is just a simple story of a day in the life of two simple, desperately unhappy people. Through Bernstein’s masterful use of lyrics and his commanding genius over music he was able to take a story where nothing really occurs and turn it into a masterful piece of work. The characters are left in the same position that they were when the opera began. Only a few hours have passed in time and by the end of the opera no resolution has come about. Yet, we have come to know these characters. As an audience we feel tremendous sadness for each of them. We feel the prison that is their life together. We also feel that nothing will change- the tragedy of the opera lies in just that. The story ends where it began with two miserable people with no hope for a resolution.

[edit] External links

• Flyrope.com page for Trouble in Tahiti

Musicals of Leonard Bernstein
On the Town • Trouble in Tahiti • Wonderful Town • Candide • West Side Story • 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue • A Quiet Place • The Race to Urga