Just brilliant. Far more inspiring and enjoyable than Carmen, and I’m not sure why I found it so. Perhaps because it opened my eyes to something new? Perhaps because my attention span for opera has diminished during the Covid months? (I confess I felt my eyelids drooping during the filmed performance of Porgy & Bess.)
Anyway, this was a performance of Bernstein’s first opera, “Trouble in Tahiti”, (1951), which is the day in the life of an unhappily married couple ostensibly living the post-war American dream sold by advertising jingles: the perfect house and all mod cons. The music was perfectly judged, from the jaunty jazzy trio who acted as a Greek chorus to the bickering and laments of Dinah and Sam.
That was followed by the music that Bernstein wrote for West Side Story, which was danced by Phoenix Dance Theatre. The theme was the Apartheid laws of early 1960s South Africa, and the dancing was sublime. I haven’t seen live dance for years, and to watch the fluidity and grace of the dancers was uplifting.
A really wonderful evening.
- Sam – Quirijn de Lang
- Dinah – Sandra Piques Eddy
Aides memoires part 3 