Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti (CD, Br-Klassik)

The exotic-sounding title of Bernstein’s rarely played one-act act Trouble in Tahiti is misleading, as the opera is set in an American suburb, where Sam and his wife Dinah live a prosperous life, but not happiness. While Sam distracts himself from lost love and the estranged relationship with his successes in work and sport, Dinah seeks salvation from her analyst or in the dream world of the movie Trouble in Tahiti. Bernstein, who ironically dealt with the disputes between his parents in his work, performed the work in 1952 in the auditorium of Brandeis University in Waltham / Massachusetts, where he taught himself at the time. Bernstein’s rousing, cross-genre music, with which he has repeatedly built a bridge to jazz and popular music, is exactly the right terrain for Ulf Schirmer. The director of the Munich Radio Orchestra, which has made a name for itself as an exceptional ensemble in terms of flexibility and quality, once again acts as a lusty genre globetrotter on this recording.