Previn's Streetcar Named Desire

[CarlosAlberto]

Is anyone here going to see this semi-staged performance with Renee Fleming reprising her role as "Blanche"? I hear it's the first time this piece is being presented in New York. Has anyone seen any past productions? How is it?

[AC126748]

The score is available on CD (link below) and the original production from San Francisco is available on DVD, though the DVD is out of print.

The score has moments of great beauty, and a lot of undramatic dead-weight.

Fleming was glorious in the original production. It's a great role that was written specifically for her voice.


http://www.amazon.com/Previn-Streetcar-Desire-Fleming-Griffey/dp/B00000G3XH/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1361300155&sr=1-1&keywords=a+streetcar+named+desire

[CarlosAlberto]

Oh great! Thanks for the info!

[EricMontreal22]

I admit, I would love to see this live, I own the CD and the DVD. And yet, I think it's artistically a failure--but being such a Williams nut, I find it fascinating.

Fleming is miscast--first and foremost (to be fair the DVD's close-ups do her no favour, her acting seems to consist of odd smiles at odd points and not a lot else. She did say the role was very difficult to learn, so these expressions may be due in part to the way she has to sing). There's zero subtext or sublety to her performance--but there isn't to the opera either, so I probably can't blame her.

While I like to believe anything can be musicalized, if done right, there's a strong case tobe made that Williams' dialogue in his plays already is the music, and nothing moe can be done (I know a few other musical and opera works have been done--I believe Lanford Wilson did the adaptation for an opera of Summer and Smoke, and since I see so much of Williams in Wilson, I'd liove to hear or see that).

Either way, I can't fault Fleming for singing it almost all loudly like it was Wagner--not how I picture Blanche the majority of the play, but that's how Previn wrote it, I assume.

But whoever did the libretto for Streetcar should be embarassed--the famous quotes are more or less there, but otherwise most of the sung lines are things like "Where are you going" "To wash my face in the bathroom!" (This reminds me of the argument against ALW style sung musicals like in Aspects of Love where they sing about pouring coffee or whatever--but hypocritically, maybe because it's not Williams, that bugs me less).

As I said, the real problem simply is there's no subtext--when Stanley first enters and meets Blanche there's absolutely no sense of danger, or desire, or anything. Some of this may be better with a better director (I guess this version is in concert?) but IMHO Previn's score should have captured a lot of the Williams subtext that is lost without his dialogue, and it's completely inept at that. Some of it comes close to camp--but to their credit, IMHO it doesn't quite cross over.

There's a clip here from ArtHaus DVD (maybe they're reissuing it?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz9LoXaz7lU

BUT keep in mind many people do really like it--it seems to divide audiences (and critics) very evenly. And I have a weird fascination with it.

(On the other hand I wish they'd release on DVD the 1980s PBS performance by Dance Theatre of Harlem of their Streetcar modern ballet which--by some miracle--gets the feel of the play exactly right).

[EricMontreal22]

Here's one of the more pretty, musically, bits her I Want Magic speech to Mitch--but I feel it doesn't match the tone of the original dialogue at all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byF3FKUryns

And a drunk Blanche when she meets the young guy collecting money for the paper at the door. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhAmkQBymJs

And a long clip of the 15 minute finale (one of the scenes where the music works better for me--maybe because the tragic ending is so operatic, though I still have some issues) which should give you a good idea if you want to go or not http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bicx7YsIK9I

[Dollypop]

I had always felt that STREETCAR was begging to become an opera. In Previn's hands the project didn't work. Fleming had her moments but there was no way she could be considered the "moth-like" creature Williams described her as.

[Caring Soul]

I watched a video of a rather portly soprano singing the role of Blanche. It really didn't work. In my view, she needs to be a delicate Southern flower.