BLO has fresh take on a classic with ‘A Streetcar Named Desire'

As a college vocal student, Patricia Racette got some bad news. Racette's professor told her she had a wonderful gift for singing opera. 'I was devastated,' Racette told the Boston Herald. The New Hampshire native had enrolled in University of North Texas to study jazz, but with no vocal jazz concentration at the school, she had to take classical vocal lessons. As someone who had never been exposed to opera, she didn't understand its power. Then her professor gave her a recording of iconic Italian soprano Renata Scotto singing Puccini's 'Suor Angelica' to explore. 'It was like a lighting bolt struck me,' she said. 'Every single note was dripping with nuance, intention, and meaning.' Racette plans to bring both that bold electricity and deep nuance to her direction of the Boston Lyric Opera's 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' Nov. 5 – 8 at the Cutler Majestic Theater. With music by Andre Previn and a libretto by Philip Littell, the 1995 adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play follows a former Southern belle, Blanche DuBois, as she's on the verge of cracking and is forced to move into the decrepit New Orleans apartment of her younger sister Stella and her brutish husband Stanley. The adaptation of the American classic is a perfect reflection of what Racette loves about the art form. 'It offers a powerful opportunity to relive this story that continues to speak directly to contemporary audiences,' she said. 'And this play really lends itself to opera. The emotional intensity, the clear dramatic architecture, and the extraordinary psychological depth through the passion and inner lives of Williams' characters seems to demand musical expression.' While Racette started her career as a soprano and had a storied career — her early '90s work in the BLO's 'Tales of Hoffman' is legendary — she has taken to directing, 'like a duck to water,' she said with a big laugh. As a director, she will go right at the mental turmoil in the piece. 'I want to create moments of imbalance… through lighting and projections,' she said. 'I want to guide the audience's eye to the micro expressions and psychological fault lines. Basically, I want to give the audience a seat inside Blanche's mind.' That descent into the darkness of Blanche's brain is pushed on by an unnerving and sublime Previn score. 'It has very musically jagged moments and it also has these sumptuous, beautiful, tuneful moments… these chords that take us back to jazzy New Orleans,' Racette said. 'I feel like they're all very intentional for the telling of the story, which I think is when things are the most potent, when the story and the musical story align.' This summer, Racette debuted her take on the classic at Opera Theatre of St. Louis — BLO's 'Streetcar' is a co-production with the St. Louis company. The reviews were raves. Now Boston gets to revel in the steamy, brash, and broken journey of these characters. And we all have that professor to thank, the one who broke the news to Recette that she had what it took to be an opera legend. For tickets and details, visit blo.org