Andre Previn's A Streetcar named Desire

Just dug out my recording of this - I'd forgotton how good it is. Managed to get the whole way through it this evening and it's totally gripping - and what an ending - there's a trumpet and soprano fading away which leaves such an impact! There's a bit of jazz in it, but it works very well IMO and is subtle enough to retain the overall modern contempory operatic feel.

Fantastic recording as well, it's on DG and there's a real sense of occasion - probably helped by the fact that the audience applause is included after many of the areas / acts (though curiously not at the end...)

Just wondered if anyone else has this CD and what their thoughts are? If you haven't got it and you like most opera, I would highly recommend it. As a benchmark, I love Britten, Verdi and Wagner, but would not say no most the standard repertoire.

 

I don't have a recording of it, but was at a performance he did at the Barbican last year with Renee Fleming and Janice Watson. Misread the start time on the ticket so had to spend the whole first act listening to it on their appalling PA in the bar - and actually had fun spotting cliches, influences and quotations (from R.Strauss, a few from Schoenberg and Berg IIRC and whole swathes of Korngold, + as you say several very noticeable jazz influences too). So by the first interval was amused in a highly cynical way. I do have to say it improved through the 2nd act and the 3rd was pretty good. I'm afraid it didn't grip me enough to want a recording of it though. Sorry!

 

Graham - I think the recording I have is of the concert you went to. I'll check... You're right about the influences, esp Korngold and whilst I understand your cynicism, I would suggest that on subsequent hearings it would grow on you. I think that the recording is helped by the astonishing quality of the singing, not to mention the sound - it's a DG recording with their supposedly superior 4D sound...