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Leonard Bernstein: Trouble In Tahiti
Background Information: Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein was an American composer & orchestra conductor. Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts & studied at Harvard & the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was highly regarded as a conductor, composer, pianist & educator. He is probably best known to the public as long time music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; for conducting concerts by many of the worlds leading orchestras; & for writing the music for the musical West Side Story. All told, he wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals & numerous other pieces. Bernsteins politics were decidedly left wing, but unlike some of his contemporaries, he was not blacklisted in the 1950s. In the late 1960s & early 1970s he actively supported groups such as the Black Panthers & publicly opposed the Vietnam War. During the 1960s, he became a well-known figure in the US through his series of Young Peoples Concerts for US public television. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethovens Symphony No. 9 as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. DVD Extras: Trouble in Tahiti is shot in wide-screen, appropriate for the era that gave us CinemaScope. There are subtitles in German, Spanish & French. A full translation in English is printed in the booklet. The extras include an introduction that partly overlaps with A Very Testing Piece, in which Paul Daniel touches on the parallel with Bernstein's own unhappy childhood. Humphrey Burton in Not Particularly Romantic elaborates on this theme & goes on to offer a further fascinating commentary on Bernstein, whom he knew well.
This new film of Leonard Bernsteins music-theatre piece Trouble in Tahiti, produced by BBC Wales & Opus Arte & directed by Tom Cairns, makes a strong case for a neglected work. Bernstein wrote his satire on American materialism in 1952, drawing on elements of opera, revue & musical comedy to tell a story of a marriage thats turned sour amid the trappings of suburban prosperity. The brevity of the piece, which flashes by in 39 minutes, perhaps accounts for its rare appearances, making this version specially welcome. Tom Cairns directs with style & panache, moving the camera effortlessly to & fro between the seven scenes. Amir Hosseinpours choreography recalls with affection the heyday of the MGM musical then at its zenith. The film opens with a Greek-style chorus singing in scat jazz fashion to a montage of 1950s imagery: flickering television adverts, manicured lawns & white picket fences. Characters within the narrative appear in flash-back in home video footage. This is all highly diverting & possibly a ruse to mask some dramatic weakness in the story written by Bernstein himself. The wife never offers an explanation for her visit to the cinema to see Trouble in Tahiti instead of attending her sons school play, nor do we see the boy again after witnessing his parents having a tiff. The two principals, Karl Daymond as Sam & Stephanie Novacek as Dinah, are well cast & sing in a natural & pleasing manner with clear diction. The scat vocal trio is well matched & the City of London Sinfonia under Paul Daniel catch the spirit of the jazz inflected score as if it were second nature. Additional Articles & Resources: ©2004-2008 DVDArk.co.uk * Some data on DVD Ark is derived from this GNU FDL article.
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