Street Scene: Nombre D'or Widescreen Festival (Holmes) [DVD] [2002]

This 1994 German production of Street Scene proves that this is not only one of Kurt Weill’s greatest compositions but it is also one of the 20th Century’s finest operas. The story is unashamedly melodramatic portraying 24 hours in the life of a New York tenement’s residents and the single act of violence that has life-changing results for them.Weill’s powerful music and Langston Hughes’ eloquent lyrics unite to produce some heartbreaking moments such as the doomed Anna’s ‘Somehow I Never Could Believe’ and Rose and Sam’s ‘We’ll Go away Together’, but it’s not all gloom and the huge cast bring out the comic side as well, especially in the duet of the two gossipy nursemaids after the climactic murder, and the opening number ‘Ain’t it Awful, the Heat’ where you can almost feel the oppressive atmosphere of a hot summer’s day.The stage director here was Francesca Zambello whose other credits include the 1997 London production of ‘Lady in the Dark’ and Chicago Lyric Opera’s magnificent 2012 production of ‘Showboat’.

I had an idea that this would be like Berg's Lulu - gripping drama but just not my type of music so I was pleasantly surprised to find several pleasant melodies here. The acting is as good as the singing, which is top class and there's also some really good dancing. The story isn't the most cheerful in the world - although the horrible racist, sexist, violent father is the object of his own destruction, he takes others with him who didn't deserve such a brutal fate. (No wonder his wife turned to another man!) And just to offset the drama there are some light-hearted scenes as well. "Moon Faced and Starry Eyed" is a joy to watch. Did anybody else who saw this want to do what Sam did and give the smug housewives a mouthful, by the way? Great entertainment but no joyful ending.

Fantastic production, took me back to the days I used to work at the ENO as a dresser, good to see Anthony mee as lippo, wonderful singing, choreography, great director, everything you could wish for in a terrific production, would highly recommend.

Bonne présentation de la vie de quartier à NY.... Une production d'un opéra européen présentait des personnages savoureux de style Norman Rockwell

It is indeed a great performance, the cast is indeed perfectly able to render the emotions with deep feeling - I have perhaps felt something more with the production of the English National Opera, but this Houston offer is all the same very acceptable. The sound of the orchestra is anyway too loud.

Street scene est une oeuvre américaine de Kurt Weill. Elle montre des personnages de la classe moyenne, en proie à des problèmes divers (chômage, enfants difficiles, logement exigu). Tout cela finit par le meurtre d'une femme par son mari jaloux. Techniquement, le spectacle est réussi (vocaux et danses).

I hesitated at first given the German origin of this DVD. Would they be able to get into the spirit of what is after all an American musical? What about accents? What about style? No need to worry. This isactually a joint production with the Houston Opera and many of the singers are English speaking. So what we have is an excellent production of Street Scene faithful to the spirit of the original. Except for the credits you wouldn't know it comes from Germany. The singers are uniformly good at both singing and acting. The ensemble acting is superb. No subtitles which makes it a little hard to grasp every word. And no extras. All in all a fine tribute to Kurt Weill just a year after his centenary. Now how about Mahagony and the Eternal Way?