Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)

100 man on WNBT named Charles F. McCarthy whose weather chats pulsate with such wondrous prose that some of his listeners dive right back into bed and pull the covers over their ears. "Here in midtown Manhattan," Mr. McCarthy is quite likely to say, "it's a rare and lovely November morn. An enchant' ingly beautiful robin's egg sky with a lacy pattern of woven whisps of wondrous white. A glowing golden gleam from Old Sol adds the touch of a picture post card sky. The air is savory and delightful. All makes for a topdrawer four 'S' day — succulent, sunny, semi-summery." Now, look here, McCarthy. There hasn't been any savory air in Manhattan since the Indians owned it. As for those "woven wisps of wondrous white," if you look again you'll notice that lacy pattern spells out Pepsi-Cola. It's an ad, son. Enough of this succulence, McCarthy. How cold is it outside? Chaos in Suburbia CfPROUBLE In Tahiti," the second in JL the monthly NBC Television Opera series, opens with a deliciously ironic paean of praise to the American Suburbia ("Parks for the kids. Neighborly butchers. Less than an hour by train.") which is written and sung in the style of a singing commercial. The trio sings it deadpan with only the faintest hint of a dry smile, suggesting that life in Suburbia is not quite so enchanting as the lyrics proclaim. It's a sort of very modern Greek chorus in jazz rhythms, and the lines, innocent appearing in print, are extraordinarily pointed and malicious when sung. "Up to date kitchen, washing machine "Colorful bathrooms, and 'Life' magazine . . . "Real solid silver, wine in the soup; "Two-door sedan and convertible coupe . . . "Vitamin B chlorophyll toothpaste "Who could ask Heaven for anything more? "Lovely life, oodles of culture "Over TV, Book-Of-The-Month Club . . ." And so on. Apart from this chorus which is just a trio, there are only two characters in Leonard Bernstein's opera — a man and wife who are about as miserable a married couple — the up-to-date kitchen, notwithstanding — as you can imagine. We first encounter them quarrelling, an old, old quarrel, over the breakfast table. An accusation of infidelity. Who first raised his or her voice the night before? Why can't he make Junior's school show? All the little disharmonies, which reflect the immense barriers between the two, come out in short staccato sentences which are, I suppose, Bernstein's way of interpreting the tempo of life in Suburbia. SAM: You lead your life And lead me to mine. DINAH: Oh, but you're selfish SAM: And we'll get on fine. The next scene at the office shows Sam ("You marvel of a man" sings the Greek chorus) besting a friend in business, then loaning a less fortunate friend some money. ("Oh, Sam, you're an angel, you big-hearted man" sings the chorus.) The scene shifts to the psychiatrist's couch where Dinah sings of her dreams of "harmony and grace" as opposed to the blood-curdling competitive drives of her husband. If I understand Bernstein correctly, this wolfish competitive drive of modern society, which is consuming the wife, is the theme of the piece. It is best summed up, and frighteningly so, in an exultant song by Sam about the men "who never, never, never will win" and the other kind (of which he is a representative): "The winner is always a winner! "He never will have to worry "About his dinner. "He never will have to think "About getting thinner. " 'Cause he's a winner, a nature boy!" The title "Trouble In Tahiti" is pure irony. It's the title of an insipid movie the wife goes to see to escape from her torments and then sings about the plot in a wonderfully funny lyric which should make any movie producer squirm with embarrassment for his art. Bernstein's work was not conspicuously successful when it was tried out at Tanglewood this summer and I think I know why. It is an intimate opera, far more attuned to the intimacy of a seventeen