Street Scene

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Kurt Weill Street Scene opera to libretto by Elmer Rice and Langston Hughes. Directed 2018 by John Fulljames (with Associate Director Lucy Bradley) at the Teatro Real de Madrid. Stars Paulo Szot (Frank Maurrant), Patricia Racette (Anna Maurrant), Mary Bevan (Rose Maurrant), Joel Prieto (Sam Kaplan), Lucy Schaufer (Emma Jones), Jeni Bern (Greta Fiorentino), Michael J. Scott (Lippo Fiorentino), Tyler Clarke (Daniel Buchanan), Marta Fontanals-Simmons (Jennie Heldebrand), Eric Greene (Henry Davis), Richard Burkhard (Harry Easter), Sarah-Marie Maxwell (Mae Jones), and Dominic Lamb (Dick McGann). Tim Murray conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real de Madrid (Chorus Master Andrés Máspero) and the JORCAM (youth orchestra and choir of Madrid). Set and costume design by Dick Bird; lighting design by James Farncombe; choreography by Arthur PIta; sound design by Poti Martin. Directed for TV by Jérémie Cuvillier; produced by Xavier Dubois and Natalia Camacho. Sung in English. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

This is considered an opera, not a musical. Or maybe it’s a Pita ballet. Anyhow, we trust the Teatro Real de Madrid as much as anyone in the business, so we will cover this. Neil Fisher in his review at page 95 of the March 2020 Gramophone generally praises the “intimacy and spectacle” involved this work offering “social satire, bloody tragedy, burgeoning love, and a smidge of razzle-dazzle (with room for Arthur Pita’s choreography).”

Here are a couple of official clips:

Uno de los acontecimientos de esta temporada: el estreno en el Teatro Real de #StreetSceneTR, de Kurt Weill. Esta ópera, la primera compuesta por Weill en su exilio americano, fue denominada por el autor "ópera estadounidense", y en ella se amalgaman la comedia musical de Broadway, el jazz norteamericano y la tradición europea operística.
American Opera by Kurt Weill (1900-1950) Libretto by Elmer Rice After his play of the same name (1929), with lyrics by Langston Hughes Premiered at the Adelphi Theatre of Broadway (New York) on 9 January 1947 Premiere at the Teatro Real New production by the Teatro Real In co-production with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and the Oper Köln The doorstep of a tenement on the East Side of New York is the setting for a multitude of precarious lives and situations, all too often pushed to the limits. Romance, disputes, gossip mongering, betrayals and constant tension mark the routines of this community of neighbours, making Street Scene a work with an important degree of social protest. Besides, this was the first opera that Kurt Weill composed after he arrived in the United States, having fled from Nazi persecution. Prestigious dramaturg, Elmer Rice wrote the libretto based on his play by the same name, this had already met with great success and had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929. Weill's score combined the essence of Broadway Musicals and North American jazz, without forgetting the traditional European opera - recitatives, arias, ensemble - in which he had been immersed before crossing the Atlantic to never look back. Together, Weill and Rice achieved a work about everyday life in a big city that was brutally realistic but that also communicated a great sense of poetry. Stage Teatro Real de Madrid, Main Auditorium Musical director Tim Murray Stage director John Fulljames Associate director Lucy Bradley Set and costume designer Dick Bird Choreographer Arthur Pita Lighting designer James Farncombe Sound design Poti Martin Abraham Kaplan Geoffrey Dolton Greta Florentino Jeni Bern Carl Olsen Scott Wilde Emma Jones Lucy Schaufer Olga Olsen Harriet Williams

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