Endstation Sehnsucht (A Streetcar named desire)

Opera by André Previn
Libretto by Philip Littell based on the drama of the same name by Tennessee Williams

Blanche DuBois, subtle and a little over-excited, has left her failed life behind. With a suitcase in her hand, she seeks refuge with her sister Stella, who lives with her husband, the Polish-born laborer Stanley, in a simple two-room apartment in New Orleans. Very soon, social differences cause their life together to escalate. Blanche takes refuge in alcohol and lies - until one day disaster strikes.

Tennessee Williams' 1947 drama describes a country in upheaval and uses the example of Stanley and Blanche to show the brutality of changing times. The 1998 setting by German-American composer André Previn is an opera that strikes a chord with the times and gets under your skin with its emotionality.

"'Endstation Sehnsucht', written in 1947 as a play about the epochal change in the USA, is today a question about the final destination of our longing for a free, open America."

Ulrich Mokrusch, director