No 'Trouble' for St Andrews Chamber Opera's 'Trouble in Tahiti'
By Lucien Willey
One of the many benefits of living in St Andrews is that despite the town’s size, there is an embarrassment of cultural riches, from museums to opera, available throughout the year. Because of this, it goes without saying, the competition to be amongst the cream of the crop is quite fierce. And yet, the St Andrews Chamber Opera Group’s recent production of Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti easily competes with the best of them. The packed seating in the Laidlaw Music Centre on the Saturday showing (the second of two) shows that I was not alone in this assessment.
Before the opera proper, though, there was a fantastic amuse-bouche in the form of a vocal showcase by roster of talented students performing small bites of opera from sources as diverse as Mozart and Jonathan Dove – whose opera, Marx in London, recently enjoyed a fantastic staging by the Scottish National Opera. This tasting menu of student operatic talent, accompanied by only a piano, leaves your humble correspondent optimistic about the future quality of student opera in St Andrews. Then, after a brief intermission where non-alcoholic beverages were served at eminently reasonable prices, came the main event. The staging opened with a jazzy trio of vocalists (soprano Emily Speed, tenor Ben Hayes, and baritone Dylan Swain) singing in a way that resembles the result of a one-night stand between a Greek chorus and a barbershop quartet,about the joys of white-picket-fence 1950s suburbia.
“Mornin’ sun kisses the windows, kisses the walls
Of the little white house;
Kisses the door-knob, kisses the roof
Kisses the door-knob and pretty red roof
Of the little white house in Scarsdale.”
They sing a paean to mid-century consumerist perfection, with each new verse mentioning a new suburb – some real, some generically fictional. The sort of places inhabited by the people who’ve “made it” , the American Dream in a cul-de-sac. However, when our main (and, to a degree, only) characters, Sam and Dinah, are introduced, they have decidedly not “made it”, at least in an emotional sense – in a material sense, they’re fine and dandy. Despite a mutual longing for love, their marriage is on the rocks, primarily due to their inability to communicate. Their son, Junior, occasionally mentioned but never seen, exists as a non-character, ignored by both parents. Sam and Dinah’s first interaction, fighting over breakfast, admitting that this is no way for them to live, but with their conversation cut off by outside obligations, sets the tone for their relationship across the opera’s forty or so minutes.
Brannon Liston-Smith as Sam, Emily Speed as Girl, Ben Hayes as Boy, and Dylan Swain as Boy in Trouble in Tahiti. Image courtesy of Arabella Palmer for St Andrews Chamber Opera.
With the characters split up, the scene shifts to Sam in his office, exuding the sharkish confidence of a 50’s corporate cliche while the chorus sings his praises, calling him a genius, a marvellous man, and other bits of obsequious brown-nosing, serving as a representation of an arrogant internal monologue. Meanwhile, Dinah sings longingly to her analyst about a dream of finding a flourishing garden amid a “bare and black” landscape. The metaphor, while heavy-handed, works perfectly in the context, especially in contrast to Sam’s facade of conquering swagger. The characters meet in the street at lunchtime, and, despite the lack of other plans, they make up imaginary commitments to avoid having lunch with each other, singing past each other matching songs of regret and longing.
Then, in what my opinion is the peak of the narrative, Sam – having won a tournament at his gym – sings “There’s a law about Men”, a grand and dramatic solo about how some men can try and try and never succeed, and how others are born winners who will inevitably rise to the top. Here is where Brannon Liston-Smith, the fifth-year baritone playing Sam, really shines, imbuing his character with the triumphant, un-self-aware egotism of a low-rent podcaster. In the meantime, Catriona Kadirkamanathan’s Dinah sings to her haberdasher about a south sea musical called “Trouble in Tahiti”, which she initially sings scornfully about before slowly sliding into an escapist fantasy of romance. Accompanying her, the chorus trio dance around the stage dressed like naval officers and islanders before abruptly staggering into a moment of self-consciousness. Sam, in a moment of contemplation, sings another version of “There’s a Law about Men”, admitting that for victory, one must “pay through the nose”.
The opera ends in reflections, with the couple sitting around the dinner table, trying to talk, but unable to figure out where to begin, in the only spoken dialogue of the Opera. They then, while musing on whether they’ll ever be able to find the love they once had for each other, decide to go see, together, the previously mentioned “Trouble in Tahiti”, opting for “the bought and paid magic of the silver screen” as a temporary salve. The trio end the opera, with a tragic-feeling reprise of the earlier song “Island Magic”.
Dylan Swain as Boy, Emily Speed as Girl, and Ben Hayes as Boy in Trouble in Tahiti. Image courtesy of Arabella Palmer for St Andrews Chamber Opera.
The jazzy-feeling score of this opera works perfectly with its 1950s setting and aura of suburban discontent, and the students of the St Andrew’s Chamber Opera group executed this atmosphere perfectly. On their part, it was on par with a professional production. Similarly, the vocal talent was fantastic, with all the sadness, exuberance, longing, and bombast their respective roles required. To avoid accusations of over-flattery, I will say that the set design was not nearly as good as it could have been for this staging. While properly sparse, as Bernstein intended, the design of the set backgrounds had an almost Dr. Seuss-esque quality that in some ways undermined the seriousness of the performance. Similarly, the costume design, while overall quite good, had a few bits that were visibly MacGyvered. These, however, were minor quibbles that were more than excused by the nature of this opera as a student production, and were in no way glaring enough to cause any negative effect on this otherwise phenomenal staging.
Overall, Trouble in Tahiti was a thoroughly sharp production. The students of the St Andrews Chamber Opera Group presented this staging with their metaphorical teak polished and brass gleaming, a new coat of white paint on the picket fence of this midcentury suburban semi-tragedy. I, for one, can’t wait to see what they do next.