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Article: `A Streetcar Named Desire'
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- September 24, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1998 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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`A Streetcar Named Desire'
at the San Francisco Opera
Tennessee Williams filled "A Streetcar Named Desire" with so
much music that turning it into an opera might seem beside the point.
There's the dialogue itself, some of the most lyrical ever
written. And the snatches of music introduced at key moments: the
sound of a blues piano; the strains of a polka; the song, "It's Only
a Paper Moon."
Yet "Streetcar" also invites operatic treatment in the clash
between its larger-than-life central characters - the delicate,
doomed Blanche DuBois and her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley
Kowalski.
So both the challenge and the opportunity were great for Andre
Previn when he chose "Streetcar" as ...