Leonard Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I first saw this at a workshop I attended in the fall. I loved the music so much that I wanted to get a recording and came across this production. I have to say it exceeded my expectations in every way. I expected a video of a staged opera but this is just incredible.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant performance of Bernstein's greatest theater work
Review: I'll lay my cards on the table immediately: I think West Side Story, as affecting as it often is, is uneven and ultimately overrated. On The Town is better because Comden and Green were more mature and skilled lyricists in their late twenties than Stephen Sondheim was in his. Candide remains intermittently brilliant but somehow unfinished, rather like Tennessee William's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, with all of its alternate endings.
All this to say that Trouble In Tahiti is a very great one-act opera and one of a handful of works of its time that asks unanswerable questions. Now, some 50 years after its creation, Trouble In Tahiti is a coruscating indictment of "The American Dream," decades ahead of its time and still appallingly relevant.
It is often entertaining, but never cheap or facile. And its ending offers not a tidy ideological package, gift-wrapped and beribboned (as West Side Story does), but a deeply disturbing question: if you've been paying attention at all, you'll find yourself asking, "Am I happy, or merely contented?"
Bernstein's masterpiece receives a performance worthy of it in this great film. Some flashy elements - too many establishing shots of Manhattan, for example - do not really detract from the fine performances of the two principals, the excellent work of the jazzy trio that serves as a Greek chorus, and the ultimate message that one can only hope, never assume.
Miss this one at your soul's peril!

Rating:
Summary: A Rediscovery: As Fresh and Timeless as Ever
Review: This "Trouble" is a wonderful Technicolor nightmare; an inspired and wonderful send up of the artificial wholesomeness of Suburbia. Here, the trio is more fully integrated into the opera itself, serving not only as commentators in Greek chorus fashion (as often in performance) but characters themselves.

As Dinah, Stephanie Novacek gives a blazing, almost terrifying performance of "What a movie!" - the effect not unlike having a gifted singer/storyteller encapsulate all of Elektra into 5 minutes - and managing to throw in a a "happy" ending! Positively chilling!

Karl Daymond's Sam is spot on. The gym scene "There are men" is spiked with hilarious homoeroticism (and nudity). While going through his calistehnics, the boys at the gym perform an elaborate, rhythmic, homoerotic gym routine in front, behind and all around an oblivious Sam. This "oblivious" quality speaks volumes about Sam's characters and he and Dinah's troubles.

Cairns uses a lot of symbolism and many interesting devices; flashback, video, home movies, television shows, product placements - all stylishly done and used to maximum effect. The overall feel for this viewer was similar to being "let in on the secret."

It's hard to believe Trouble in Tahiti is 50 years old!

Like many DVD's coming out lately, this short opera is padded out with some "extra" features definitely worth exploring.

Highly recommended!