Previn Operas - 2023

André Previn OPERAS AND STAGE WORKS Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1976), A Streetcar Named Desire (1997), Brief Encounter (2007), Penelope (2019)

“...the most riveting of contemporary operas.”

San Jose Mercury News

A Streetcar Named Desire An opera in three acts (1997) Libretto by Phillip Littel, based on the play by Tennessee Williams Duration: 2 hours 45 minutes Premiere: September 1998, San Francisco Opera

“...sensational and mature, Previn’s Streetcar is a rare hit among contemporary operas.”

Mark Kanney, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

cast

BLANCHE DUBOIS: Soprano STELLA KOWALSKI: Lyric-coloratura soprano EUNICE HUBBELL: Mezzo-soprano STANLEY KOWALSKI: Baritone

orchestra

HAROLD MITCHELL (Mitch): Tenor PABLO GONZALES: Actor (non-singing) A YOUNG COLLECTOR: Tenor A MEXICAN WOMAN: Mezzo-soprano A DOCTOR: Actor (non-singing) A NURSE: Actor (non-singing) SATB Chorus

3(2pic+2afl).2(ca).3(2Ebcl+asx+bcl).2(cbn)/4331/timp(bd).2perc/hp.cel/str

reduced orchestra

2(II:pic,afl).2(II:ca).2(I:asx.II:Ebcl,bcl).2(II:cbn)/2.2(I:cnt).2(II:btbn).1/timp(perc).perc/ syn.hp/str (6.5.4.3.2)

press

“The Previn Streetcar deserves to be staged and heard often. It can claim a secure place among contributions to the opera genre at the century’s end.”

— Mario R. Mercado, Opera News

synopsis

ACT I, Scene 1 Blanche Dubois has suffered the loss of both her ancestral home and job when she arrives in Elysian Fields, New Orleans to visit her sister Stella, who has married Stanley Kowalski, an ex-G.I. trucker.

Scene 2 Stanley, infuriated by Blanche’s airs, her suggestive behavior, and what he regards as her loss of his wife’s birthright, is determined to expose Blanche’s past – which is more tragic and sordid than even he imagines.

Scene 3 During a poker game that night, Blanche meets a workmate of Stanley’s, Harold Mitchell (Mitch), who is a true “mother’s boy.” Blanche sets her sights on him. Stanley, drunk, breaks up the evening and strikes Stella, for siding against him with Blanche. Later, against Blanche’s advice, Stella returns to Stanley’s bed. The next morning Stanley overhears Blanche entreating her sister to leave him.

ACT II, Scene 1 Stanley tells Stella that he has a friend making inquiries about Blanche in her hometown of Laurel. When he and his now-pregnant wife go out for the evening, Blanche attempts to seduce a young paper-boy, but ends up only stealing a kiss. She later goes out with Mitch.

Scene 2 An amorous Mitch unburdens his heart to Blanche, who in turn tells him of her brief marriage to a young homosexual and how she blames herself for his suicide.

ACT III, Scene 1 Mitch is late for Blanche’s birthday party. Stanley, who feels that his home and marriage are threatened by Blanche, breaks up the celebration by revealing Blanche’s reputation in Laurel for seducing young men, and that she has been told to leave town. He hands Blanche a one-way ticket home and tells her that Mitch knows everything and will not be returning.

Thus begins the fragmentation of Blanche’s mind.

Scene 2 Stella is in the hospital for a premature delivery. Mitch, drunk, invades the apartment and bitterly reproaches Blanche for her deception. His denunciation of her as someone too unclean to enter his mother’s house and the appearance of a Mexican woman selling flowers for the dead trigger the unhinging of Blanche’s mind.

Scene 3 Blanche’s fragmentation is completed when Stanley rapes her.

Scene 4 Blanche prepares to visit a fictitious admirer. Stella, unable to believe Blanche’s accusations against Stanley, packs Blanche’s clothes for the asylum when the doctor arrives. Blanche leaves, declaring that once again, she depends on “the kindness of strangers.”

Brief Encounter An opera in two acts (2007) “Feel free to fall madly in love with Brief Encounter — but be prepared to shed some wistful tears in the process.”

Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle

Libretto by John Caird, based on Noël Coward’s play Still Life and his screenplay for the film Brief Encounter Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes Premiere: May 2009, Houston Grand Opera

cast

LAURA JESSON: Mezzo-Soprano ALEC HARVEY: Baritone FRED JESSON: Baritone MYRTLE BAGOT: Contralto ALBERT GODBY: Bass DOLLY MESSITER: Soprano STANLEY: Baritone BERYL: Soprano

orchestra

DOCTOR GRAVES: Baritone MARY NORTON: Soprano MRS. ROLANDSON: Soprano

Non-singing roles: MAITRE D’HOTEL WAITER AT THE ROYAL HOTEL WAITER N THE KARDOMAH CAFÉ PORTERS AT THE STATION

3(pic).2(ca).2+bcl.2/4331/timp.2perc/cel.hp/str; onstage piano trio (vn, vc, pf) in Act I, Scene 6

synopsis

During the early years of World War II in England, Laura Jesson takes the train to a nearby town once a week for shopping and a movie. A chance encounter with Alec Harvey — who, like Laura, is married with two children — leads quickly to passion. They continue to meet surreptitiously until they must finally decide between love and honor.

press

“[Previn’s] great talent as a composer is to catch you unawares... The opera will last.”

— Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“Previn’s lush, tonal score supplies a new dimension to this tale, giving a voice to the yearnings of Laura, the ordinary woman who is suddenly catapulted into extraordinary feelings.”

— Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal “...it boasts a carefully crafted libretto by John Caird that distils Noël Coward’s screenplay for David Lean’s film, but leaves enough space for the music to illuminate the text.”

— Tim Ashley, The Guardian “Words are less important (and numerous) in Brief Encounter’s portrait of inner upheaval — one that Previn’s music reveals with a richness that cinema cannot.”

— David Patrick Stearns, Gramophone “[A] faithful adaptation...with masterful strokes of lush, old-fashioned movie music.”

— D.L. Groover, Houston Press

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour A play for actors and orchestra (1976)

By Tom Stoppard and André Previn Premiere: 1977, London Symphony Orchestra, the composer conducting Duration: 1 hour

“It is a haunting and bleakly funny piece of work.”

Alan Franks, The Times

cast

Six actors

orchestra

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the ‘mermaid’ orchestration

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synopsis

Acting and music are inseparably combined in this work, which concerns two inmates of a Soviet mental hospital: one a sane political dissident, the other a man whose fantasy is that he possesses a symphony orchestra. They both report regularly to a doctor, who is himself a member of an orchestra and who steps down from time to time to join the imaginary orchestra — clearly visible to the audience — which surrounds the inmates’ cell.

The play blends fantasy and reality throughout.

Penelope A monodrama (2019) Libretto by Tom Stoppard. Score realized by David Fetherolf Premiere: July 24, 2019, Renée Fleming, soprano; Uma Thurman, narrator; Simone Dinnerstein, piano, Emerson String Quartet, Tanglewood Music Festival Duration: 38 minutes

“…it could have a long life after this performance, not only because of Previn’s stature and the work’s intriguing circumstances, but also due to the sheen of his writing and the nimbleness of Stoppard’s wordplay.”

John von Rhein, Chicago Classical Review

cast

Soprano Narrator

ensemble

string quartet and piano

from the editor

André Previn died before completing his final composition — a monodrama about Homer’s Penelope, commissioned by The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — but he had nevertheless done very substantial work on it. André’s commissioners, publisher, and agents consulted among themselves and asked me, his editor of 22 years and close friend, to gather up what he had done and, if possible, to bring it to conclusion... This score is the finalized, postpremiere realization of Penelope... Both the soprano and the narrator are Penelope, and should be presented as such.

— David Fetherolf

Photo by Lillian Birnbaum

Composer, conductor, and pianist André Previn left his native Germany in 1938 and subsequently settled in Los Angeles. His early career orchestrating film scores at MGM led to conducting engagements and an international career as Music Director of orchestras in London, Los Angeles, Oslo, and Pittsburgh. In the 1980s, he concentrated increasingly on composition. His own richly lyrical style underscores his love of the late Romantic and early twentieth-century masterpieces. He was the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Kennedy Center, the London Symphony Orchestra, Gramophone, and Classic FM. In 2010 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999, he was Musical America’s ‘Musician of the Year’ and was appointed KBE, an honourary knighthood, by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1996. photos

Cover: A Streetcar Named Desire at San Francisco Opera, photo by Marty Sohl A Streetcar Named Desire at Theater an der Wien, photo by Johannes Ifkovits Brief Encounter at Houston Grand Opera, photo by Felix Sanchez

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at Cleveland Playhouse and The Cleveland Orchestra, photo by Roger Mastroianni Penelope Rijksmuseum, The Grieving Penelope by Elisabeth Kemper, 1821

For more information contact Peggy Monastra peggy.monastra@schirmer.com, 212-254-2100

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