A Streetcar Named Desire (opera)

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This article is about the opera adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play. For other uses, see A Streetcar Named Desire (disambiguation).
A Streetcar Named Desire - DVD cover of original production
A Streetcar Named Desire - DVD cover of original production

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.

Contents

[edit] Cast

Blanche DeBois – Renée Fleming
Stanley Kowalski – Rod Gilfry
Stella Kowalski – Elizabeth Futral
Harold "Mitch" Mitchell – Anthony Dean Griffey
Eunice Hubbel – Judith Forst
Steve Hubbel – Matthew Lord
Newspaper Collector – Jeffrey Lentz
The Mexican – Josepha Gayer
Pablo Gonzales – Luis Oropeza
The Doctor – Ray Reinhardt
The Nurse – Lynne Soffer

[edit] Technical

Conductor - André Previn
Stage Director - Colin Graham
Sets - Michael Yeargan
Lighting - Thomas J. Munn

[edit] Reception

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. [1]


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 [2]


In his estimation of the main singers, Holland comments:

as beautifully as Renée 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[3]

[edit] Other performances

The opera has since been performed in New Orleans (1999/2000), San Diego (2000), Washington, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas (2002).

The European premiere took place at the Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg, France. Other performances were given in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Giessen, Germany, Turin, Italy, Tokyo, Japan and London, England[4]

[edit] London première

The opera had its London premiere in June, 2003 in a semi-staged version at the Barbican[5], with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Prévin, with much of the original cast reprising their roles and Janice Watson replacing Elizabeth Futral as Stella.

[edit] References

  1. ^ NY Times
  2. ^ NY Times
  3. ^ NY Times
  4. ^ Schirmer
  5. ^ Andrew Clements, "Opera: A Streetcar Named Desire", The Guardian (Friday 27 June 2003).
  6. ^ Opera Ireland
  7. ^ Vienna
  8. ^ Opera Australia
  • Holland, Bernard, "Pursuing The Soul Of Streetcar In Opera", New York Times, 21 September 1998.
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