In their beautiful little white house, Sam and Dinah are leading the life of a model family of the 1950s: The father, a successful businessman; the mother, a thrifty housewife; the son, a gifted musician.
One-act opera in seven scenes
Libretto by the composer
Performed in English with German supertitles
Premiere
30. September 2017
Dates & Cast
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
Members of the Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
Members of the Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
Members of the Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
Members of the Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
Members of the Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
- Conductor Ingunn Korsgård Hagen
- Staging Manfred Weiß
- Bühnenbild & Kostüme Okarina Peter, Timo Dentler
- Choreography Natalie Holtom
- Lighting Design Marco Dietzel
- Dramaturgy Anne Gerber
Members of the Staatskapelle Dresden
- Dinah Winona Martin
- Sam Steffan Lloyd Owen
- Sopran / Mezzosopran Natasha Gesto
- Tenor Timothy Oliver
- Bariton Joseph Parrish
In brief
In their beautiful little white house, Sam and Dinah are leading the life of a model family of the 1950s: The father, a successful businessman; the mother, a thrifty housewife; the son, a gifted musician. Just like in the television commercials, accompanied by the swinging rhythms of a jazz trio praising life and love in the suburbs. But behind the perfect façade, Sam and Dinah have nothing more to say to each other. He abandons her to his job and his handball club while she lies on the psychologist’s couch or watches the South Sea tearjerker »Trouble in Tahiti« … alone. Manfred Weiss’s production of this one-act opera by Leonard Bernstein from 1952 takes a satirical and incisive look at the everyday life of an average American family, while also spotlighting its contemporary counterpart on this side of the “pond”.
Storyline
The trio praises the idyll of the little white house in a beautiful American suburb. The morning sun rises over it, gently awakening the family from their dreams.
Sam and Dinah start the day with mutual reproaches: Sam is allegedly having an affair with his secretary Miss Brown, Dinah cannot be talked to and she wastes money on her analyst. To make matters worse, a crucial handball tournament for Sam is taking place at the same time as their son's school performance which he can’t miss. Despite all the accusations, Sam and Dinah long to find a way back to one another. They arrange an open conversation for the evening.
Quite the businessman, Sam rejects a certain Mr. Partridge’s requests for a loan while generously lending to his friend Bill. The trio is full of admiration for Sam's business acumen and magnanimity.
Dinah describes to her analyst her dream of a desolate garden, from which she is carried away by a tender voice and called to a place of harmony and love.
Sam confronts Miss Brown, asking her if he ever got too close to her. Dinah is still with the analyst: before she can see the man with the loving voice, the dream vision vanishes. Dinah and Sam meet on the street by chance. They are at no loss for excuses to avoid having lunch together. In their minds, they both remember the happy beginning of their relationship and wonder how they were able to grow so distant.
The trio praises the status symbols of the modern lifestyle which make everyday life so splendidly comfortable.
Sam presents his world view: People are not equal by nature. There are born winners and born losers, and naturally he belongs to the first group. Dinah was at the movies and got all worked up over the terrible film Trouble in Tahiti, a mindlessly kitschy South Sea romance. A disgrace! As she fervently re-experiences the "island magic" one more time, she nearly forgets about dinner with Sam.
Sam realizes that even the born winner has to take the agonizing step across the threshold of the house to see his wife in the evening.
The trio heralds the nightfall that promises evening pleasures and intimate closeness.
The planned discussion between Sam and Dinah gets stuck in the beginning and fizzes out in reproaches and trivialities. The escape route leads to the movies: until they can find their own aphrodisiac, Sam and Dinah are satisfied with its commercial replacement on the big screen.
Trouble in Tahiti again.
