Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 12

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–90) Trouble in Tahiti (Reduced orchestration by Garth Edwin Sunderland) The chamber orchestration by Garth Edwin Sunderland is scored for flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute), oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet (doubling E-flat and bass clarinets), bassoon (doubling contrabassoon), horn, trumpet, trombone, timpani, percussion, piano, strings, two vocal soloists, and a vocal trio Bernstein began his seven-scene, one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti —a lampoon of suburban life centered on the troubled marriage of a young couple, Sam and Dinah—on his honeymoon, following his marriage to Felicia Montealegre on September 10, 1951. The opera’s constantly bick- ering husband and wife very likely personified the composer’s parents, Samuel and Jennie Ber- nstein, but also strangely foreshadowed turmoil in his own marriage. The libretto is Bernstein’s own, and the score was dedicated to Mark Blitz- stein. Its premiere took place on June 12, 1952, before a large audience at Brandeis University’s Festival of the Creative Arts. Creating the libretto as well as the music allowed Bernstein supreme control over the opera’s sub- ject matter: the degeneration of postwar Ameri- can society into a series of unchallenged stereo- types. Families—the clichéd husband and wife with two children, a son and a daughter—lived in architecturally controlled suburban neighbor- hoods with manicured yards and monotonously repetitive housing designs. Husbands left home and returned like clockwork from their bland company positions. Job titles and the attendant income determined social status, as did the con- sumer goods they provided. Wives fulfilled the duties associated with what Betty Friedan later would call the “feminine mystique”: mother- hood over college education, absolute allegiance to family, social and stylistic conformity, and housewifery as the only respectable profession for women—a state given the medical term “housewife syndrome.” Families presented a façade of happiness and cohesion while, within the four walls of their house, there often was dis- satisfaction, rebellion, and depression. With Trouble in Tahiti , Bernstein had thrust himself into the realm of political music theater pioneered by Kurt Weill and Mark Blitzstein. Working in Cuernavaca, Mexico, a safe distance from his opera’s setting, he could both perceive these flaws in American society as well as the risks that their exposure presented in the McCa- rthy era, when dissention and difference could easily rain down “anti-American” critiques or charges of Communism. Bernstein employedmusical and dramatic struc- tures to subtly underscore important themes. Sam sings his solos in places of hyper-masculin- ity, namely the business office and exercise gym, on stage left, while Dinah unhappily navigates the hat shop and psychiatrist’s office on stage right. Dinah’s solos always take second place af- ter Sam’s. Their three duets are equally spaced throughout the drama (nos. 1, 4, and 7) and oc- cur within the home and outside on the street. Bernstein deliberately reinforced gender stereo- types in his “Notes on the Production”: “DINAH wears a town suit throughout, except in Scene 1, when she has on a morning coat, or negligee. SAM wears a conservative business suit.” As for the third character in the drama, the jazz vocal trio, Bernstein dictated that the “TRIO should wear evening clothes.” Bernstein described the trio as a “Greek chorus born of the radio commercial” that extols the virtues of suburban life throughout the opera. His “Notes on the Production” further state that “They must be as conventionally handsome as possible, and must never stop smiling.” Sam and Dinah alternate between bitterness and tender- ness. Business dealings and a handball tourna- ment keep Sam from attending his son Junior’s play. Victorious in the tournament, Sam sings “There’s a law” to explain that some men, like himself, are winners and others are loser. Dinah moves from her therapist’s office to the movie theater, where she watches the South Sea ro- mance Trouble in Tahiti —“What a movie.” That evening, Sam and Dinah struggle and fail to en- gage in conversation. Flustered, they go to the theater to enjoy the escapist film about Tahiti. Thirty years later, Bernstein composed an op- eratic sequel called A Quiet Place (1983). Dinah has died in a car accident, and her two children, Junior and Dede, have returned to reconcile with Sam. Following the disappointing premiere of A Quiet Place , Bernstein incorporated Trouble in Tahiti into the score as a series of flashbacks comprising Act Two. –Program notes © 2019 Todd E. Sullivan Felicia and Leonard Bernstein (late 1950 or early 1951) A husband arriving home from work (1950s) The American dream (1950s) AUGUST 19 – AUGUST 25, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 99