Trouble in Tahiti: Opera at the Fringe!

I have to confess that this is the first opera I’ve seen at a Fringe Fest.  I’ve seen Weil and Brecht performed at Fringes but this is charting new territory.  Even in its organizational structure, the Vancouver Concert Opera Co-Operative is truly creative.  An operatic co-op!  What a cool concept. 

PLEASE NOTE:  Libretto and Score: Leonard Bernstein; Production: Vancouver Concert Opera Co-Operative

Bernstein’s 1951 one-act opera is not often performed so Vancouver audiences are in for a rare treat.  The scene opens with a jazz trio (the Greek chorus) singing the virtues of life in a little white house in the suburbs in front of a screen showing time lapse images of the bustling city of Vancouver.  The screen changes to a simple image of a table and vase to indicate the happy home in the burbs.  But all is not the sweetness and light that our jazz trio would have us believe.  Dinah and Sam argue and bicker relentlessly, with only a few moments of wishing it were otherwise.

Sam heads off to his office where he’s a man in his element, barking orders and in control.  Dinah heads off to her analyst’s office and there she sings “ I was standing in a garden”, what I thought was the most interesting piece of the opera.  Contralto Natalie Burdeny carries the lyricism of the aria beautifully and has the maturity to convey the sadness and desperation of trying to get from a bed of weeds to a garden of love and happiness.

When Sam and Dinah encounter each other on the street, they hurry to make excuses to leave and then, in a strong duet, ask why they must lie.  Each is clearly yearning for the lost days of their love.  Meanwhile, back at the house, the trio sings of all things wonderful in suburbia, living that American dream.

A gentleman friend who attended the show with me enjoyed the following scene at the gym in which Sam (played by baritone Ed Moran) has blown off attending his son’s play in favour of a handball tournament and, of course, he’s just triumphed.  The shower scene is a witty triumph itself with a naked Sam singing about the glories of being a winner.

But back at home he realizes the price one pays for winning.  Trouble in Tahiti in this opera refers to the film version of a struggling couple fighting natives and witch doctors to realize their love.  There is no American-style happy ending here, just a real-life feeling of on going struggle and a faint hope of something better to come.