Kurt Weill
Street Scene
Subtitle | An American opera in two acts |
---|---|
Text Author | Langston Hughes |
Text Author | Elmer Rice |
Publisher | Kurt Weill Music |
Instrumentation | 1(picc).1.2.bcl (cl).1 - 2.2.2.0 - piano (celesta), harp, timp & perc; str. |
Duration | Full evening |
Movements | Ain't it Awful, the Heat? I Got a Marble and a Star Get a Load of That When a Woman has a Baby Somehow I Never Could Believe Ice Cream Sextet Let Things Be Like They Always Was Wrapped in a Ribbon and Tied in a Bow Lonely House Wouldn't You Like to Be on Broadway? What Good Would the Moon Be? Moon-Faced, Starry-Eyed Remember That I Care Catch Me if You Can There'll be Trouble A Boy Like You We'll Go Away Together The Woman Who Lived Up There Lullaby I Loved Her Too Don't Forget the Lilac Bush |
Language | English |
Authorized translations | German: Lys Symonette |
Synopsis | Weill’s “Broadway opera,” with a score that blends operatic arias and ensembles, show tunes and dance numbers, jazz and blues, and dramatic dialogue, is a passionate, emotionally charged portrait of family and communal life among the multi-ethnic working-class and immigrant inhabitants of a crowded New York City tenement. Centered on the life-changing events of one oppressively hot summer day, Street Scene illuminates the tensions, despair, hopes, and dreams of this melting-pot community. Anna, trapped in an unhappy marriage with her husband Frank, is having an affair with the milkman. Her daughter, Rose, is in love with her neighbor, Sam. He is quite happy not to go to law school in order to marry Rose, but she is not sure of what this sacrifice will entail. She makes her mind up when Frank returns home early, and finding his wife with her lover, shoots them both dead. Rose sees that she must not destroy Sam's life before he has made his way in the world, and she goes off without him. |
Roles | Singing roles: Anna Maurrant (dramatic soprano), Frank Maurrant, (bass-baritone), Willie Maurrant (boy soprano), Rose Maurrant (lyric soprano), Sam Kaplan (tenor), Abraham Kaplan (tenor buffo), Harry Easter (Broadway baritone), Henry Davis (baritone), Lippo Fiorentino (tenor), George Jones (baritone), Carl Olsen (bass), Mrs. Fiorentino (coloratura soprano), Mrs. Jones (mezzo-soprano), Mrs. Olsen (alto), Daniel Buchanan (buffo tenor), Jenny Hildebrand (soprano), 2nd graduate (soprano), 3rd graduate (mezzo-soprano), Mrs. Hildebrand (mezzo-soprano), Nursemaids (soprano, mezzo-soprano), three children, Dick McGann (singer-dancer), Mae Jones (singer-dancer). Speaking roles: Mrs. Jones, Steve Sankey, Shirley Kaplan, Vincent Jones, Dr. Wilson, Officer Murphy, city marshal, Fred Cullen, milkman, policeman, old clothes man, intern, ambulance driver, married couple, passerby, neighbors, children. |