Opera

Trouble in Tahiti

Leonard Bernstein

In their beautiful little white house, Sam and Dinah are leading the life of a model family of the 1950s: The father, a successful businessman; the mother, a thrifty housewife; the son, a gifted musician.

One-act opera in seven scenes
Libretto by the composer

Performed in English with German supertitles

Premiere
30. September 2017

In brief

In their beautiful little white house, Sam and Dinah are leading the life of a model family of the 1950s: The father, a successful businessman; the mother, a thrifty housewife; the son, a gifted musician. Just like in the television commercials, accompanied by the swinging rhythms of a jazz trio praising life and love in the suburbs. But behind the perfect façade, Sam and Dinah have nothing more to say to each other. He abandons her to his job and his handball club while she lies on the psychologist’s couch or watches the South Sea tearjerker »Trouble in Tahiti« … alone. Manfred Weiss’s production of this one-act opera by Leonard Bernstein from 1952 takes a satirical and incisive look at the everyday life of an average American family, while also spotlighting its contemporary counterpart on this side of the »pond«.