About the work
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is an opera by André Previn after Tennessee Williams's play of the same name; Philip Littell wrote the libretto (1995). Previn himself conducted the premiere on 19 September 1998 at San Francisco Opera, staged by Colin Graham, with Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois.
Plot
The impoverished Southern belle Blanche DuBois seeks refuge with her sister Stella and Stella's husband Stanley Kowalski in New Orleans. Blanche's affected manner provokes Stanley, who uncovers her repressed past, rapes her, and destroys her last hope of a life with Stanley's friend Mitch; Blanche is finally committed to a psychiatric institution.
Cultural significance
Previn's score combines his experience as a film composer with late-Romantic echoes of Strauss and Mahler; he shortened the work in 2007. The opera is now among the most frequently performed contemporary operas and was staged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2012, among other houses.