A Streetcar Named Desire (Opera)

 

The Opera: Blanche DuBois arrives at the New Orleans apartment  of her younger, married sister Stella and Stella's husband Stanley Kowalski. A simple two room apartment in the French Quarter, it isn't really conducive to hosting a long stay but it becomes clear very early that Blanche has nowhere to go. The family's ancestral estate was lost to creditors. It also becomes clear that Blanche has some psychological issues and not everything she says is the truth. She and her brother-in-law do not get along (to say the least) but Blanche is hopeful of a new relationship with one of Stanley's friends named Mitch. This opera was first performed in 1988 and this production is a co-production between OTSL and Boston Lyric Opera.

Composer: Andre Previn
Libretto: Phillip Littel, based on the play by Tennessee Williams 

Principal Cast: 

      Sara Gartland (Blanche DuBois), soprano.  Sarah made an impressive OTSL debut last year as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and this role couldn't be more different than that role. When this opera premiered, Renee Fleming sang Blanche and those are hard shoes to fill. But fill them Gartland does. Her performance of this very difficult part is exceptional, her voice powerful when needed and small when needed. Her performance makes attending the performance well worth the time. 

    David Adam Moore (Stanley Kowalski), baritone.  If you are expecting a Marlon Brando performance of Stanley you will be disappointed, Moore's Stanley is a thug without the sex appeal and I think this is intentional. Moore sings wonderfully though and his performance is powerful.  Originally it was announced that Thomas Glass would sing this role and I admit to disappointment because I would have liked to see what he would have done with it. 

    Lauren Snouffer (Stella), soprano. It would have been easy for Snouffer's performance as Stella to be lost beside the tour-de-force performance of Gartland as Blanche, but Snouffer holds her own. She has a lovely voice with a more bell-like quality than Gartland which is appropriate for singing the role of the younger sister. It is difficult to see why Stella would stay with Stanley given how he is played in this production but Snouffer manages to convey Stella's sexual attraction to Stanley. 

    Bill Bruley (Harold "Mitch" Mitchell), Tenor.  Bruley had a pleasing tone that mixed well with Gartland.       

Director: Patricia Racette (Racette was appointed OTSL's new Artistic Director last year).

Running Time:  3 hours with one 25 minute intermission.  Beware: the first act is 90 minutes so use the rest room before the performance. 

One good thing:  Sara Gartland is the reason to see this opera. Her acting combined with her powerful yet emotional voice is what made me stick it out to the end.

One not-so-great thing:  I'm sure many people love the Previn score but it seemed to me to be similar to much of the mid-to-late 20th century opera in that the notes being sung didn't convey (to me, at least) a range of emotions and I found it musically boring. Interestingly the incidental music between scene changes and the accompaniment to the singing was very beautiful but the actual notes to be sung by the characters sounded like the same old "modern" music that bears no relation to the words being sung. If you don't like modern you will tire of the music in this one fairly quickly.  I did. (Full disclosure, I like very little opera from the mid-late 20th century but I have enjoyed very many of the operas I've seen written in the 21st century.)

The Light in the Piazza

 

The Opera: It is the 1950's and Margaret Johnson has brought her adult daughter Clara to Italy, to re-visit some of the sites that Margaret and her husband visited after the War. They meet the Naccarelli family in Florence and young Fabrizio Naccarelli is enamored with Clara. Despite Margaret's best efforts to keep them apart, the two fall in love. But Margaret remains worried because her daughter is, as she says, a "special" child and the difference in languages is perhaps keeping the fact that she is developmentally disabled from being evident. This work is based on a 1960 Elizabeth Spencer novella and the 1962 film starring Olivia de Havilland. It premiered as a Broadway Musical in 2003. Because this is essentially a Broadway musical, albeit with music that is unusual for a Broadway show, many of the principal actors had Broadway experience. Note this production is amplified (at least in parts) which I think has never been done by OTSL before. 

Composer and Lyricist: Adam Guettel (Note:  He is the grandson of Richard Rogers and the son of Mary Rogers who wrote Once Upon a Mattress).
Book:  Craig Lucas

Principal Cast: 

    Katrina Galka (Clara), a lyric coloratura soprano, shines in the role of Clara. Her voice is crystal clear (and she has perfect diction). Galka's Clara is innocent but frustrated with her mother and with herself and Galka is perfectly believable in the role. We have seen Galka before, but not recently and it was a joy to listen to her. 

    Kate Baldwin (Margaret) was making her OTSL debut. She is perhaps best known for starring opposite Bette Midler in Hello Dolly as Irene Malloy. She is not an opera singer but her voice was strong enough to carry the role and her portrayal of Margaret was very believable. Margaret loves her daughter unconditionally and wants what is best for her but is also very protective. 

    Roy Hage (Fabrizio) was making his OTSL main season debut. He makes a winsome Fabrizio although his voice was not as strong as Galka's and so they did not seem evenly matched to me. Perhaps this was because the OTSL orchestra (part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra) is bigger than a Broadway orchestra, although Hage seems to be a legitimate opera singer. Galka had no problem soaring above the orchestra but Hage was sometimes lost. But his portrayal of a young man struggling to express himself in English is very believable. (Note that his songs are in Italian and are not translated, although there are supertitles in Italian.)

    Paolo Szot (Papa) was making his OTSL main season debut. He had a lovely baritone voice and although he is Brazilian, not Italian, he made a believable Italian. In 2008 he won a Tony Award for best actor in a musical for playing Emile De Becque in the revival of South Pacific.  It seems that he is best known for being on Broadway (most recently playing Hades in Hadestown) but he has also sung at The Met and La Scala. He made Papa by turns funny, angry and a bit sexy.

    Debby Lennonn (Mama) is a local favorite, appearing in both musicals and operas at Union Avenue Opera but this is her first appearance at OTSL. (Also she is a graduate of my High School!). She sang beautifully and brought comedy to the show especially when Mama turns to the audience and says "I don't speak English but I have to tell you what is happening!")  

Director: Crystal Manich

Running Time:  2 hours and 30 minutes with one 25 minute intermission 

One good thing:  Although the singing was beautiful the real star of this production was the 1950's costume design by Ulises Alcala.  The hats!  The gloves!  The shoes! The dresses!  All out of a technicolor 1950's movie.  

One not-so-great thing:  The subject matter can be difficult as the audience wonders if it is the right thing to let Clara marry Fabrizio. I kept comparing it in my mind to the movie (although in my mind Deborah Kerr played Margaret when in reality it was Olivia de Havilland). In that screenplay the decision to allow the marriage seems reasonable because the Naccerellis are very wealthy so Clara would not have to manage anything and the alternative is eventually institutionalizing Clara. This was not made clear in this version and I think it would have helped the story if it had been included.

Last One Out

The Book:  Carralon Ridge, a village in New South Wales, was once a great place to set down roots and raise a family. But then ten years ago a big mining operation moved in down the road and began buying up properties. Now Carralon Ridge, covered in mine dust and with the constant drumming of the mine in the air, is little more than a ghost town with only a few residents hanging on. Ro has returned to the town to be with her ex-husband and daughter for the five year anniversary of the disappearance of her son Sam. Sam disappeared without a trace on his 21st birthday, while on a break from college, leaving only a rental car on the side of a road leading to some abandoned houses. After his disappearance his family fell apart. His father was committed to staying in Carralon Ridge, where he grew up, but his mother, Ro, moved away to Sydney. Now on the five year anniversary of Sam's disappearance, Ro wonders if they will ever learn what happened to Sam. She has gone over and over all the "evidence" from his case for the past 5 years, convinced that they are missing something.  But what?   

The Author: Jane Harper

Genre: Mystery

Length: 583 pp (ipad mini e-reader)

One good thing:  While Harper writes a good mystery, the joy of this novel is in her character development and representation of grief. There is the grief over missing Sam. There is grief over a failed marriage. Most of all there is the grief of the remaining villagers who have lost the community they once cherished. 

One not-so-great thing: Once the mystery comes to a climax, Harper goes back in time to show the reader what happened. This is one of my least favorite ways to end a mystery, I don't need a picture I just need someone to solve it. Other people may not find this a problem.

Four Doorways*: Story; Characters; Setting; Language  

This novel has a propulsive plot that kept me turning the page to find out what happened to Sam but it also is very much a character driven novel. Harper develops not only the main characters (Ro, her ex-husband and daughter) but many of the remaining characters in the village. I think that lovers of mysteries and lovers of character driven novels would enjoy this. 

While the village is very much a character in this novel I don't see the setting in Australia as particularly important. I kept forgetting it was Australia because it could just as easily have been a town in the American west. 

Harper is a very good writer. While there is nothing in the particular language or structure of this novel that is unique, Harper keeps the story flowing and her descriptions are vivid. 

"It seems to me that all works of fiction and narrative nonfiction are broadly made up of four experiential elements: story, character, setting, and language. I call these “doorways,” because when we open a book, read the first few pages, and choose to go on, we enter the world of that book. And I’ve come to believe we can help readers better choose their next book by looking at the proportion of these four elements."  Nancy Pearl on the Four Doorways.

    

  

2026 Walter Scott Prize

Somehow I managed to miss the announcement of the shortlist for Historical Fiction for 2026 which was published in April. This is my favorite prize to follow because I love historical fiction, although I get tired of WWII historical fiction. 

Back in February I blogged about the long list here.  Since that time the only additional book on that list that I read was Helm which I wrote about here.  It has been difficult finding the other books because my library doesn't always buy them or there is a long wait list.

The shortlist, which was announced April 16, 2026, was:

The Pretender by Jo Harkin (Bloomsbury)

The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury)

Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Polygon)

Once the Deed is Done by Rachel Seiffert (Virago)

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking)

Of that list the only one I've read was Seascraper which I read last year when it was on a Booker Prize list. I liked it very much. 

The winner for 2026 was announced June 12, 2026 and is The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly. 

I checked and of course my library doesn't have it but I put a "notify me" tag on it. 

The Pirates of Penzance at OTSL

 

 

The Opera: Frederic has turned 21 which marks the end of his apprenticeship with the Pirate King (he was supposed to be apprenticed to a Pilot but his nursery maid, Ruth, mis-heard and apprenticed him to a Pirate). Frederic has done his duty to the pirates but once a free man he will do his duty as a citizen and hunt them down. Frederic falls in love with Mabel the youngest daughter of a major-general but before they can be married a loophole is discovered in his indenture of apprenticeship that requires him to rejoin the pirates. As with most operettas, the plot is complicated and there are subplots.  The Pirates of Penzance was first performed at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, United Kingdom on December 30, 1879 and officially premiered at the Fifth Avenue Theater, New York on December 31, 1879.  It includes the classic "A Very Model of a Modern Major-General". 

Composers: Gilbert & Sullivan

Principal Cast: 

    Daniel Luis Espinal (tenor) sings Frederic and is making his OTSL main stage debut with this opera. He has sung with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.  He has a beautiful voice but he looked older than 21 years (often a problem with opera). 

    Jana McIntyre (soprano) sings Mabel, the love interest of Frederic and the youngest daughter of General Stanley. She sang Tatiana in last year in OTSL's A Midsummer Night's Dream and is scheduled to be in Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera. She was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. She sang beautifully and played Mabel with appropriate coquetry.

    Robert Mellon ( baritone) sings (and steals the show as) Major-General Stanley. Last year he appeared at OTSL in Die Fledermaus and in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He pulled off "A Very Model" to the delight of the audience and was also very funny. Of all the principal cast he seemed the most comfortable as an actor. 

    William Socolof (Bass-Baritone) sings the Pirate King. He is making his OTSL debut.  He was very funny but I would have liked a bigger voice in the role. 

Director: Sean Curran

Running Time:  2 hours and 30 minutes with one 25 minute intermission 

One good thing:  James Schuette's bright set and colorful costumes evoke the music hall of the late 1800's and Sean Curran's stage direction and choreography make the most of the slapstick aspects of the operetta. This would be a very good Opera Theatre of St. Louis production for people who have never been to the Opera before. In fact, there were a number of children (wearing Pirate hats) at my performance. 

One not-so-great thing: Because this is an operetta there are portions that rely on the spoken word. Sometimes the singers (who are singers and not actors) speak a little bit too fast and words get lost. But this is a minor nit. 

The Correspondent

The Book: Sybil Van Antwerp is a retired lawyer, long divorced with two living adult children who worry about her living alone. But she likes her house overlooking the river and her garden. Three days a week Sybil sets aside time for her correspondence. Sybil prefers writing letters to personal interaction. Writing helps her make sense of the world and helps her build connections with other people. She writes to her brother, her best friend, her neighbor, the young son of a former colleague, as well as famous authors like Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry.  She even writes to George Lucas. And sometimes they write back. She talks about the books she is reading and what is going on in the world and in her life. Through all these letters the reader gets to know Sybil, her background, her hopes, her fears, the mistakes she thinks she has made and the successes that she has had. But when she begins to receive anonymous letters from someone who claims to have been harmed by her in the past, she begins to worry. 

The Author: Virginia Evans    

Genre: Literary Fiction

Length: 475 pp (ipad mini e-reader)

One good thing:  Evans has created a memorable, wholly formed character through the letters that Sybil writes and receives. She was a character I wished I could meet in real life. 

One not-so-great thing: At one point Evans has Joan Didion write back to Sybil (they clearly have been corresponding for years). They are discussing the death of a child. Of course Didion wrote an entire book about the death of her child (as well as a book about the death of her husband), but it made me a little bit uncomfortable reading a fictionalized letter from her on this subject. 

Doorways: Story; Characters; Setting; Language**

This is a character-driven novel, not plot-driven. There is a plot as we come to care about what will happen to the different people to whom Sybil writes, but primarily we are watching the arc of Sybil as she deals, over the years, with old age. She becomes very real through her letters, always her irascible self but deeply caring about the people she loves. The setting in Maryland is not particularly important to the novel although Sybil's garden and path down to the river are important to her. The Correspondent is an epistolary novel that covers a number of years. Some people don't like epistolary novels. I happen to love them because I think they are very good at revealing character if done well, and this is done very well. Through the novel Sybil stays truly herself no matter who she is writing to but reveals different parts of herself to the different people to whom she writes. And despite the fact that Sybil seldom leaves home, the letters have a propulsive sense that carries the story along. 

**"It seems to me that all works of fiction and narrative nonfiction are broadly made up of four experiential elements: story, character, setting, and language. I call these “doorways,” because when we open a book, read the first few pages, and choose to go on, we enter the world of that book. And I’ve come to believe we can help readers better choose their next book by looking at the proportion of these four elements."  Nancy Pearl on the Four Doorways.

The Things We Never Say

The Book: Artie Dam is a high school history teacher who loves his job and is beloved by his students who call him Damn-Dam. Long married to his wife Evie, they live in the house she inherited from her wealthy family, right on the water where Artie keeps a sailboat and loves to go out sailing alone. Their son Rob is grown, having survived a terrible car accident when he was a teenager. Artie seems to have everything and yet he feels isolated and lonely. He feels that no one really knows him and that he doesn't really know other people, including those closest to him. He feels that he is living a double life - outwardly jovial and inwardly suffering. Then he discovers a secret that has been kept from him for years and an incident occurs to him, both of which force him to rethink his approach to life. 

The Author: Elizabeth Strout 

Genre: Literary Fiction 

Length: 334 pages (e-reader ipad mini)

One good thing:  This is a novel of ideas and the big idea is that no matter what we think we know we can never fully understand other people and we can never fully understand how we appear to other people. As we travel through life we are blind but we think we can see. Within each human being is a vast, unknowable universe. In creating a character who appears outwardly ebullient to other people but who, inside, is dealing with loneliness and feelings of isolation, Strout makes this idea very accessible.

One not-so-great thing: As with many of her novels, Strout doesn't shrink from having her characters deal with recent real events. For instance, in "Lucy by the Sea" Strout had her characters deal with isolation because of the pandemic. This novel takes place in 2024 during the presidential election. While I found her characters' reaction to the election and its immediate aftermath realistic, in real life events move so fast that some of the things she writes about seem dated already.

Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways": Characters; Writing; Story; Setting 

This is a novel focused on one character, painting a picture of him during a certain year of his life but during which he reflects on his past and the author occasionally gives us glimpses of his future. I found Artie to be a great character study while at the same time finding the other characters hard to completely understand (which I think is the point).  We mostly see the other characters from Artie's perspective although occasionally the narrator jumps in with an insight.  

I am aware that many readers find Strout's writing style off-putting. She writes in straightforward sentences that appear simple on their face. I think some readers feel she talks down to them. I find her style fascinating; it is as if she is sitting across from you telling you a story. She will straight-out tell you that a character only understood something later. I found this novel easy to read and yet full of ideas to think about. The story is relatively simple, the plot is not action-packed and yet I found it difficult to put down. 

Strout has set this novel in Massachusetts, a change from her previous novels, but unlike her novels set in Maine I didn't get a particular "Massachusetts feel" from this novel. In some ways it could have been set anywhere in New England.

Trigger warning:  There is a great deal of talk of suicide in this novel.