This week on The Lyric Stage we have Leonard Bernstein conducting his own music - two songs from WSS, and his one act opera Trouble in Tahiti.
Trouble in Tahiti is a satire, a dark satire, of suburban American life in the 1950's. Sam and Dinah have everything -, the job in the city, the shiny bathrooms, the house, the child, a perfect setting for a fifties TV sitcom - perhaps Mr. Ed, or Father Knows Best. For them, the post WW 2 American Dream has come true - but they are miserable. They squabble, fail to show up at their son's ball game, and seek solace in material comforts or at the office and gym. Their operatic misery plays out against the background of a bouncy trio celebrating the empty symbols of suburban life surrounding them. At the end they set out to see a movie, Trouble in Tahiti, a South Sea Islands fantasy Dinah has already seen.
The performance we have is from 1973, a studio recording with Julian Patrick as Sam and Nancy Williams as Dinah. Antonia Butler, Michael Clarke and Mark Brown make up the trio. The libretto is by the composer and he conducts the Columbia Wind Ensemble.
Following Trouble in Tahiti, Bernstein will conduct two songs from his 1984 recording of West Side Story.