Street Scene

Opera Theatre of St. Louis

Street Scene, the final offering of Opera Theatre's 2006 season, is one of those pieces that most musical theatre lovers have heard of, but which few have heard. Fewer still have had the chance to actually see it.

A quick glance at the program indicates why. With an enthusiastically eclectic score by Kurt Weill, poetic lyrics by Langston Hughes and gritty, realistic book by Elmer Rice (based on his own play), this 1947 opera/Broadway musical hybrid has over 30 named roles, a children's chorus and a couple of song-and-dance parts. The challenge to would-be producers, both artistic and financial, is formidable - which just makes the resounding success of the OTSL production that much more impressive.

It helps that the material is so strong to begin with. Weill's music runs the gamut from blues to melodic show tunes to elaborate choruses and ensembles. There are comic songs, gripping arias - even an elaborate faux-Donizetti sextet in praise of ice cream, and all of it seamlessly integrated into a dramatic whole. Langston Hughes' lyrics manage a similar trick by melding everyday speech with poetic imagery, and Rice's book presents strong, compelling characters struggling, with varying degrees of success, to overcome the harsh realities of tenement life in *(to quote from Rice's script) “an ugly brownstone” in “a mean quarter of New York”.

The story centers on Anna Maurrant, who once dreamed of a fairy-tale marriage but now finds herself yoked to Frank Maurrant, the prototypical Angry White Guy with a grudge against the 20th century. Meanwhile, Anna's daughter Rose tries to fend off attempts at seduction both suave (from her married boss, Harry Easter) and stupid (from taxi driver and neighbor Vincent Jones, son of the building's principal back-biting gossip) while sorting out her own feelings for Sam Kaplan, the educated but lonely son of unrepentant socialist Abraham Kaplan. Meanwhile, Daniel Buchanan nervously awaits the birth of his first child, the Hildebrand family is threatened with eviction, and everyone complains about the oppressive heat.

Anna takes refuge in a brief affair with a married neighbor. Frank finds out, kills them both and, still protesting that he loved his wife, is dragged off to prison and eventual execution. Realizing that she must now be both sister and mother to her brother Willie, Rose unhappily rejects Sam's professions of love. He says that they “belong to” each other, but Rose has seen what happens when people don't belong to themselves first, and in the end she leaves to make her own way in the world. Sam nurses a broken heart and the gossips return to biting backs and complaining about the weather.

It's all rather sordid, but no more so than, say, Cavalleria Rusticana or, for that matter, the daily police blotter headlines in the Post-Dispatch (“the capitalist press”, to quote Mr. Kaplan). And in any case, one of the remarkable things about Art is its ability to transmute the leaden ordinary into the golden exceptional.

As it did last year with Gloriana (another big, challenging show), Opera Theatre has assembled a uniformly strong cast, both in singing and acting ability. Soprano Carolyn Betty brings a sometimes-heartbreaking intensity to the central role of Anna, even if her speaking voice does have that artificial quality that one often finds in conservatory-trained singers. Soprano Jennifer Aylmer is a lively and compelling Rose, nicely matched by tenor Garrett Sorenson as Sam. Bass-baritone Jeffrey Welles is appropriately creepy as Frank. Soprano Kristen Clayton, mezzo Gloria Parker, and mezzo Ann McMahon Quintero show great comic skill as the building gossips - long on curiosity and short on compassion. Tenor Jonathan Green (who doubles as Dialect Coach) is an absolute hoot as the crotchety leftist Abraham Kaplan.

In auspicious debut for Gerdine Young Artist, tenor Gregorio González is a delight as music teacher Lippo Fiorentino, madly in love with his wife and ice cream. Mezzo Leah Dexter and baritone Kelly Markgraf show some impressive dance moves as Mae Jones and Dick McGann, the cheerfully vulgar jitterbuggers. Soprano Jennifer Maria Forni and mezzo Magdalena Wór have a priceless comic scene as a pair of nursemaids singing their charges to sleep with a catalog of their parents' imagined moral failings and soprano Jeni Tarde has a lovely moment as Jennie Hildebrand, who hopes that her life, like her new High School diploma, will be “wrapped in a ribbon and tied with a bow”.

Other fine performances include: Baritone Nicholas Pallesen and the rather thick Carl Olson, tenor Jermaine D. Smith as the compassionate janitor Henry Davis, tenor Daniel Fosha as the nervous Daniel Buchanan, soprano Katherine Whyte as Sam's protective sister Shirley, and baritone Timothy Mix, oozing charm from every pore and oiling his way across the floor (to paraphrase an Alan J. Lerner lyric) as Harry Easter.

Set and costume designer Bruno Schwengl has overlaid his grubby tenement and littered street with a grayscale New York skyline, suggesting not only the washed-out lives of the residents, but also the idea that their desperation mirrors that of the city as a whole. It contrasts nicely with the colorful interiors of the apartments that we glimpse whenever one of the gray window shades (ingeniously painted to look like closed windows) is pulled up and provides plenty of playing area for the carefully orchestrated chaos of the crowd scenes.

Director James Robinson and choreographer Seán Curran keep both those crowd scenes and the more intimate moments moving along briskly while painting some attractive and plausible stage pictures. Finally, conductor Stephen Lord leads the orchestra through Weill's kaleidoscopic score with great assurance.

In short, Opera Theatre's production of Street Scene brings the season to a triumphant and powerful close. The show is approachable, compelling and closing on Sunday, June 25th [2006] - so order your tickets now by calling 314-961-0644 or visiting the Opera Theatre web site.

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