Grand theatre, Leeds; Cadogan Hall, London
Bernstein and Janáček rarities make a terrific Opera North double bill. Plus, a welcome visit by Valery Gergiev
Leonard Bernstein, composer and on this occasion lyricist too, knew precisely what he wanted for Trouble in Tahiti (1952). He listed his demands at the front of the score: simplicity of execution, clarity of diction, swift moving action and no pauses for scene changes. Opera North, in a stylish new production by Matthew Eberhardt, conducted by Tobias Ringborg, delivered exactly that, as part of the latest offering in the company’s Little Greats festival of short operas.
This small but almost perfectly formed musical – Bernstein returned to it late in life, merging it into the less effective A Quiet Place – steers headlong into the American dream. A married couple, Sam and Dinah, live in a little white house with a little white fence in sub-ur-bi-a. She’s a frustrated housewife, he a gym-crazy businessman, a winner with no worries about getting dinner or thinner. Love has gone. They loathe each other in a grey way. Bernstein wrote it on honeymoon, which must have gone down well.
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