Trouble in Tahiti

Young singers who appear regularly with the company perform Leonard Bernstein’s satiric, jazzy, one-act 1952 opera, directed by Opera Boston Artistic Associate Adrienne Boris. Graham Wright and Glorivy Arroyo star as Sam and Dinah, a desperately unhappy suburban married couple in their 30’s. He is obsessed with work; she escapes into the world of the movies. Their communication breakdown takes place as a three-member chorus (Ishan Johnson, Nicole Rodin, Korland Simmons), described by Bernstein as “a Greek chorus born of radio commercials,” sings about the joys of life in the suburbs in 1950’s America. Bernstein claimed that in writing this opera, he sought to incorporate the American vernacular, both musical and lingual in both his score and his libretto.