Blitzstein’s “Regina” Revisited

The first time I ever listened to Marc Blitzstein‘s Regina, I admit I wasn’t very impressed. As it turns out, it was because of the recording I was listening to. The 1992 Scottish Opera recording was the only digital version of the score available. While it is a note-complete reconstruction of the score as Blitzstein wanted it, the whole affair is just dull. The tempos lag, the singers muddle the words and much of the score’s impact is lost as a result.  Was I surprised when I received the 1958 NYCO cast recording this past summer. As soon as I started playing the album, it felt like I was hearing the score for the very first time. Everything about the score struck me, from Brenda Lewis’ terrifying portrait of the title character to Elizabeth Carron’s heartbreaking Birdie. The melodies resonated more than they did previously while Blitzstein’s libretto sunk in with a clarity I hadn’t expected.

Over the last few months, I’ve found myself growing more and more attached to the score. An operatic adaptation of Lillian Hellman‘s famed The Little Foxes, I can’t say that setting the avaricious Hubbard clan to music was altogether necessary, but I doubt that anyone could have come up with a more thrilling, layered and musically fascinating work. Regina is a demanding score, but its rewards are many as a fascinating musical drama combining operatic conventions and Southern musical idioms. The contrasting use of the spiritual and ragtime, the period music of the second party sequence all speak to the play’s Deep South setting and of the decline of Southern aristocracy at the turn of the 20th century.

The opera follows the plotting of the play very closely, but expands on certain scenes and adds unseen characters, especially in a second act party (which also allows a wonderfully caustic choral number in which the party guests relay their true feelings about the Hubbard family). This second act ends with one of the most ferocious buttons I’ve ever heard. Regina has basically been told by her ailing husband that he’s going to thwart her attempts sings at her ailing husband during a spirited gallop, “I hope you die/Soon!/I’ll be waiting for you to die.” As the music comes to its finish, the orchestra hits a climactic chord followed by Regina’s pronounced and menacing “I’ll be waiting” (the syllable ‘wait’ is on top C with fermata) and that a cappella flourish brings the act to a chilling close.

The third act switches gears as all the good characters – Horace, Addie, Birdie and Zan – sit on the veranda in the morning where they sing the stunning “Rain Quartet,” which provides a quieter contrast to the ferocity of the previous scene. Zan cheerily implores the foursome to “make a quiet day,” but the problems within the family keep surfacing throughout the number. The leitmotif for “Consider the rain” and the off-stage hymn will be heard again during the finale with an absolutely breathtaking impact. The quartet segues directly into one of the most compelling moments in which the kindly Birdie, who has been the barely tolerated whipping post for most of the family, reveals the truth about herself and her feelings towards her immediate family to young Zan. In the original play it’s a showstopper (Patricia Collinge, Margaret Leighton, Maureen Stapleton and Frances Conroy on Broadway), a scene-stealer in the 1941 film (an Oscar nomination for Collinge) and a stunner called simply “Birdie’s Aria” in the opera (originally Brenda Lewis, who later sang the title role of Regina for the NYCO and subsequent cast album). It’s one hell of a scene.

This is the first major aria sung by Regina in the first act after the family’s first quibble over the business deal. She’s fed up with the bickering and admonishes her brothers with a pointed “Why don’t you all go home?” when she launches into “The Best Thing of All.” Here is Brenda Lewis, who is frankly far superior to her original Broadway counterpart Jane Pickens:

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And here’s a concert rendition of the Rain Quartet from the 1992 Richard Tucker gala. The conductor is James Conlon. Samuel Ramey is singing the role of Horace, Denise Woods is Addie, Maureen O’Flynn is Zan and the one and only Renee Fleming is Birdie. (If only this was followed by “Birdie’s Aria”…)

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“Regina” – The 1958 NYCO Cast Recording

Long considered a Holy Grail recording by musical theatre enthusiasts, the 1958 NYCO cast album of Marc Blitzstein‘s Regina has been released by Masterworks Broadway for the first time since its LP release. An opera based on Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, Regina premiered on Broadway in 1949, running  a mere 56 performances. While other Broadway operas, such as Street Scene and The Consul received original cast albums (even if they were highlights), Regina didn’t get recorded for nine years. (Though there is a piano only recording of certain musical numbers recorded after the original closed).

The Little Foxes, one of Hellman’s most famous plays, is a melodramatic study of an avaricious, desperate Southern aristocracy in decline. Tallulah Bankhead played the role of Regina Hubbard Giddens, who finds herself at odds with her brothers and husband, the result of patriarchal societal mores. She fights the gender oppression as best she can, doing what she must to get what she wants but at a considerable cost. Due to its extreme characters and heightened emotions (to say nothing of its malicious cynicism), it’s ideal for operatic consideration. (I won’t go into the plot details here. You’d have more fun seeing the film or a local production than reading a synopsis).

The opera was culled from obscurity by the City Opera in 1958 which made some alterations from the Broadway production. Blitzstein envisioned a three act opera utilizing musical idioms prevalent to the American South at the turn of the 20th century. On Broadway, he was forced to edit the piece to two acts and Hellman was very stringent regarding the dramatic structure. For NYCO, the opera was returned to its three act form, but there were some more revisions and the excision of an onstage Dixie band. The show was first performed in 1953, and revived in 1958 when Columbia stepped in to record. It may not be the complete opera, but it’s a lively 2 disc recording from the first notes of its prologue to its unbelievably breathtaking finale.

Brenda Lewis, who played Birdie in the original Broadway production, graduates to the role of Regina and sings the role with a dramatic intensity worthy of her predecessors in the play. She is especially memorable with the insistent “The Best Thing of All.” Her performance builds to a fever pitch as she does battle with her dying husband with “Do You Wish We Had Wed Years Ago?” and all but explodes with the climactic high C during the “Gallop” as she ominously tells him “I’ll be waiting.”  Regina is fascinating: she’s conniving, ruthless, steely, determined and flirtatious all in one fell swoop. Lewis is nothing short of extraordinary.

And then there’s Birdie, the fading southern belle who receives malicious abuse from her unloving husband and son while dreaming of her childhood. The role is a show stealer, and is pretty much the audience favorite. Patricia Collinge, who originated the role in the original production preserved her performance in the classic 1941 William Wyler screen adaptation, presents a characterization of such startling realism and honesty, that she all but steals the film from star Bette Davis and was Oscar nominated. Here in Regina, the part also walks away with the best of the score, most especially her confessional aria in the third act “Lionnet…Lionnet.” This showstopper sets to music one of the most famous monologues from the play, where Birdie admits her alcoholism to her beloved niece. She also admits that her husband married her for her family’s estate and that she hates her own son. It’s a glorious piece of dramatic writing, and soprano Elizabeth Carron is glorious.

The supporting cast is superb. Loren Driscoll sings the role of Birdie’s disagreeable son Leo (and would go onto sing “One Kind Word” in Blitzstein’s Juno the following year). Joshua Hecht’s bass makes an imperious impression as Regina’s husband Horace. George S. Irving and Emile Renan are excellent as the two conniving and deceitful brothers. Carol Brice (The Grass Harp) lends her supple contralto to the expanded role of Addie, the family’s housekeeper, while I would have much preferred Broadway original William Warfield singing the role of Cal. Helen Strine, as Regina and Ben’s daughter Zan, sings the recitative with a youthfulness that disappears during her one major number.

I’ve heard the score before, on a 1992 recording from the Scottish opera. Most interestingly, I didn’t care for the piece at all. But with this recording, it’s like hearing the work for the first time. The opera comes alive in a way the restored version does not (the only things I really remember from that one is the end of the “Gallop” and Birdie’s aria. Hearing it on this NYCO album leads me to wonder – isn’t it about time we had the chance to see Regina in NY again? If there’s a case to be made for another production at NYCO (or anyone else who might consider it), it’s this riveting cast album. The album is available as a digital download or CD-R via ArkivMusic.