Four performances of ˋTrouble in Tahitiˊ, with tickets at 20 euros and various discounts.

 

Ópera de Tenerife welcomes 2025 with four performances of Trouble in Tahiti, a chamber opera in-house production. After last year’s success, with tickets sold out, the fun show by Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story) is returning to the Chamber Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife on 18, 19, 25, and 26 January at 7.30 p.m. Tickets for this show, which plays jazz music, are on sale for 20 Euros, 10 Euros for people under 30, and offers several discounts.

This one-act opera in seven scenes is part of Bernstein's repertoire, a figure who was one of America's first conductors and well-known for his educational televised concerts. Premièred in 1952 in Massachusetts, the opera is set in a rich American suburb and tells the story of Dinah's disillusionment with her husband Sam, who is more interested in his career and distractions than in his family.

In this story by the American composer, a young, middle-class married couple in the 1950s is going through a relationship crisis. Far from being tackled by them both, it leads them to seek refuge in the consumerist and rampant material inherent to the North American lifestyle of the era (the American dream). A jazz trio conveys this in an ironic tone, which plays like a Greek chorus during their solo scenes and the couple's arguments.

This in-house production by the Auditorio de Tenerife involves a predominantly local artistic team, with the musical side led by the Tenerife composer and orchestra conductor Francis Hernández and the staging by Siscu Ruz, a Catalan theatre director based in Lanzarote.

The team is completed by the stage designer Carlos Santos from Gran Canaria, who has come up with a white design that creates unity between the stage and the rest of the hall; the costume design is by Leo Martínez from Tenerife, who has taken inspiration from the period dress while adding a futuristic touch; and the lighting is by Ibán Negrín, also from the island, who will surprise the crowd with the atmosphere of the aria Island Magic.

The stage director's approach includes unifying the hall with white, offering a nod to the typical white houses of American residential developments in the storyline. Also, he wanted to add the colour orange to allude "to the symbolism of Mr or Ms Right (known as media naranja, 'half orange', in Spanish), which is so often used to refer to the endless pursuit of true love, which can only be found, allegedly, through the union of two incomplete parts. Has society forgotten that we are already full of oranges?"

The cast is headed up by the mezzo-soprano Blanca Valido from Gran Canaria, who plays Dinah, and the Mexican baritone Omar Lara, who plays her husband, Sam. The cast is completed by the members of the trio who accompany the lead characters in the narration: Tenerife soprano Candelaria González, Basque tenor Aitor Garitano, and Lanzarote baritone Borja Molina.

Francis Hernández will conduct the Ensemble Ópera de Tenerife, an orchestral ensemble made up of fourteen musicians: Satomi Morimoto (piano), Sara Cabrera (flute), Desirée González (oboe/English horn), Diego Jorge Rodríguez (clarinet), Alberto Díaz (bassoon), Marianne Melián (horn), Aitor Acosta (trumpet), Cristo R. Delgado (trombone), Nelson Hernández (percussion), Juan Manuel Díaz (violin I), Carmen Vázquez (violin II), Alba Gorrea (viola), Diego Pérez (cello) and Juan Carlos Baeza (double bass).

The Auditorio de Tenerife will stage a shortened version by Garth Edwin Sunderland. The four performances offered count with the authorisation of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.

The Opera de Tenerife is an initiative organised by the Island Council through the Auditorio de Tenerife with the collaboration of the ICDC (Regional Institute of Cultural Development) and the INAEM (National Institute of Performing Arts and Music).

The tickets are available on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Check the special discounts for, among others, students, unemployed people and large families.