Great Performances: A Streetcar Named Desire






		The San Francisco Opera By John Ardoin

The San Francisco Opera is a company that has always concerned itself with opera as a living force. "Streetcar" was its fourth world premiere, preceded by Norman Dello Joio's "Blood Wedding" (1961), Andrew Imbrie's "Angle of Repose" (1976) and Conrad Susa's "The Dangerous Liaisons" (1994, also telecast by PBS). The company also has a long history of American premieres that present what is new and daring to its avid opera public. For example, in 1957, the same year Poulenc's "The Dialogues of the Carmelites" was premiered, San Francisco brought the opera to the United States, and just a year after their world premieres, it offered the first U.S. productions of Walton's "Troilus and Cressida" in 1955, Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1961, von Einem's "The Visit of the Old Lady" in 1972, and Henze's "Das verratene Meer" in 1991.



	Tom Fox as the sailor, Ryuji, in 1991's "Das verratene Meer."


	Some of the other major American premieres the company has given were Janacek's "The Makropulos Case" (1966), Carl Orff's "The Wise Maiden" (1958), Richard Strauss' "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (1959), Gunther Schuller's "The Visitation" (1967), Kurt Weill's "Royal Palace" (1968), Alibert Reimann's "Lear" (1981), and Michael Tippett's "The Midsummer Marriage" (1983). Now waiting in the wings is a first opera by Bobby McFerrin, "Saint Cecilia." If general manager Lofti Mansouri had his way, in fact, there would be a new opera as part of each San Francisco season.


		The late Marie Collier portrays Emilia Marty/Elina Makropulos in the 1966 premiere of "The Makropolous Case."

		"Today, the most interesting new music compositions and operas are being done off-Broadway or in regional opera companies," Mansouri believes. "I feel that a new form of opera is being developed by the likes of Stephen Sondheim. American opera should develop and flourish along those lines. It should have a distinctive North American expression. My belief is that opera should always be accessible: so many intellectual operas are written for no one except the composer's colleagues. "Opera was always communication. To alienate the audience through dense and complex language is, for me, sterile. 'Wozzeck' and 'Lulu,' both of which I love, unfortunately represent a dead end. You can split the notes into twelve tones up to a certain point, but when you have split them to a point of non-existence, you have nowhere left to go, unless you find another musical scale. [But] dead ends can be a challenge. They can force us to find new directions, lead us to places we have never before imagined. "We must constantly innovate, constantly experiment," he concludes. "I believe we have a responsibility to leave a legacy for the future and add to the operatic repertoire. In doing so, we will reflect the images and sounds of the times in which we live. The human adventure with music never stops."

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	Photo Credits: Top Banner: Marty Sohl. Photos: Top, Marty Sohl. Bottom, Jones.