View: Next message | Previous message Next in topic | Previous in topic Next by same author | Previous by same author Previous page (April 1998, week 4) | Back to main OPERA-L page Join or leave OPERA-L Reply | Post a new message Search Options: Chronologically | Most recent first Proportional font | Non-proportional font ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 01:10:39 +0000 Reply-To: "H.E.Elsom" Sender: Discussion of opera and related issues From: "H.E.Elsom" Subject: A childhood miracle/Trouble in Tahiti, London 20, 25Apr98 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" A childhood miracle, by Ned Rorem, libretto by Elliott Stein, based on The snow image by Nathaniel Hawthorne "UK premiere" Peony Zoe Turner Violet Amanda Morrison Aunt Emma Sally Donegani Mother Katy Bingham-Best Snowman Mark Millidge Father David Freedman Trouble in Tahiti, by Leonard Bernstein Dinah Moira Young Sam Philip Rowe Trio Olivia Maffett, Bryan Husband, Trevor Connor Director Clive Paget Condutor Anthony Davie The London 20 These two American operas were performed "semi-staged" in St Cyprian's church, near the northern end of Baker Street. The performance was done in roughly appropriate modern dress, for example, long skirts for the women in A childhood miracle. The staging itself was fairly full, using minimal props and furniture, in the centre of the nave, with seating along either side. Written only a year apart (A childhood miracle in 1951, Trouble in Tahiti in 1952), they presented a nice set of contrasts. A childhood miracle is a fantasy set in a rural winter landscape, Trouble in Tahiti depicts a realistic, satirized suburbia, from which the protagonists try to escape via the steamy movie Trouble in Tahiti. The joke is that Rorem and Carter wrote A childhood miracle partly while they were living in Morocco. A childhood miracle is a radical rework of the Hawthorne story, and rather strangely renamed. I suppose the miracle is the snowman coming to life, but that's really the trigger for the tragedy, not the whole plot. Somebody described Hawthorne as grim, but the original story (I think I remember it right) is more like a baroque version of Anderson's The snow queen, where the children get wrapped up in the fastasy of their snowman and die in the snow. Stein makes the children nearly-adult girls, has them fight over the snowman, who prefers Violet, and makes the father's intervention the cause of their flight into the countryside and death. The programme says it's Freudian, but it's so conventional there's not much suppressed meaning. The music is attractive in a faux naif way. It opens with shades of Gymnopedies and uses repetitive melodies which often reminded me of Christmas carols, evoking a secular, austere version of the Christmas-card landscape with snow. The main problem this production faced (and didn't quite deal with) was that the audience was likely to think of Raymond Brigg's The snowman, which has similarly lyrical music. Mark Millidge's Snowman in particular was sweet, wide-eyed and jolly, not quite the beautiful stranger who embodies the nascent desires of the girls. His clumsy dance with Peony as he came to life, followed by his waltz with Violet, both fully justified by the music, were particularly reminiscent of The snowman. Millidge's singing was more erotically charged than his characterisation, though he was a bit exposed at the top of what sounded like a demanding part. The other singers were all very good. The adult characters delivered their no-nonsense music forcefully, with occasionally insecure American accents. Zoe Turner as Peony was clunky and self-conscious, and Amanda Morrison as Violet was dreamy and androgynous. Trouble in Tahiti is much more ironical. Bernstein apparently regarded it as a lightweight piece based in popular music, but it looks more like early Sondheim to me. A "Greek chorus", modelled on the singing groups in television commercials of the time, comment on the life of a miserably married couple somewhere in suburbia. The action (implicitly repeated every day) consists of their day: not talking, and saying that they must talk, at breakfast; her going to her analyst, him to work; meeting in the street and lying to avoid having lunch together; her going to a movie, him to the gym; trying to talk at home in the evening and failing (because he says she keeps interrupting), and going off the movie she's already seen to try to recover a sense of romance. The music is typical Bernstein, with elements of jazz and musicals, as well as the satirized popular music of the trio. People have rotten marriages all the time, sadly, but in a way the moment for Trouble in Tahiti has gone with the gender roles it assumes. Sam's pushy over-achiever, who knows when to be a good auld boy and when to be mean, is still familiar. Philip Rowe's bleached poll was more early 90s than early 50s, but he was convincing enough. But Dinah, trapped at home with her dreams -- told to the analyst, and not unlike the fanstasy of A childhood miracle -- and seeking escape in the movies, belongs firmly in the later 1940s and 1950s, when "full employment" was achieved by defining women as people who didn't need jobs. Moira Young, though, made Dinah's arias very moving and sympathetic, while keeping her sullen and depressed the rest of the time. The trio, in period evening dress, were very professional and quite funny. They moved the minimal furniture and props, and provided the mute characters where required as well as delivering their set-piece numbers in style. The orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davie, was outstanding. Regards, Helen H.E. Elsom he@helsom.demon.co.uk http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main OPERA-L page ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to the CUNY LISTSERV home page at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU. [Powered by LISTSERV(R)]