The perpetual relevance of Street Scene

The delightful musical score of Weill's Street Scene is the reason the opera should be performed in 2018 and beyond.

It's astounding social relevance is the reason it must be performed.

And contemplated.

And discussed.

Virginia will see to the performances beginning Sept. 28. Contemplation & discussion herewith provided.

Bottom line: virtually every issue currently dividing the United States into warring political "tribes" is at the forefront of this 1947 opera and (even more remarkably) Elmer Rice's 1929 Broadway play. Doubt me? Here's the list of the themes that, together, make up the message of Street Scene:

The #MeToo movements
Domestic abuse
Gun violence
Immigration
Law and order
Socialism vs. capitalism, as espoused by a character who eerily espouses the familiar talking points of Sen. Bernie Sanders

Yikes.

Let's start with the last issue fijrst. Early in the piece, we meet one of the cantankerous residents of the tenement house: Abe Kaplan. Abe is a highly opinionated old coot who reads newspapers in Hebrew and will begin lecturing on the evils of capitalism at the drop of a hat. Like Sen. Sanders, Abe rails against a system in which the country's wealth is in the hands of the few at the top, while the workers have nothing. When his neighbors are inclined to celebrate America's "prosperity", Kaplan scornfully points out that the destitute Hildebrand family, who live on an upper floor, will be turned out into the street for non-payment of rent. Here's an excerpt from his oft-repeated lecture:

OLSEN:

We’re plenty rich, dis country.

KAPLAN:

Sure, de reech is plenty reech. But upstairs a woman wit three children can’t pay de rent and our bourgeois laws gives to the landlord de right to toin her in de street.

MAURRANT:

And if you was to divide up all the money in de country, in six months it would be right back where it is now.

KAPLAN:

Who is talking about dividing money? We must hev a new conception of society, based upon human need, not human greed, and dis will require maybe a revolution.

Sound familiar? It should - it's Sanders' stump speech with an immigrant's accent.

Speaking of immigration, that's another hot-button issue common to 1929, 1947, and 2018. Here's another excerpt, in which Frank's belief in Law and Order also finds voice:

MAURRANT: 

(to Kaplan) Yeah? Well, we don’t want no revolutions in this country, see?

MRS. JONES:

I know all about that stuff – teachin’ kids there ain’t no Gawd an’ that their gran’fathers was monkeys.

JONES:

Free love, like they got in Russia, huh?

MAURRANT:

There’s too doggam many of you Bolshevikis runnin’ aroun’ loose. If you don’t like the way things is run here, why in hell don’t you go back where you came from?

SHIRLEY:

Everybody has a right to his own opinion, Mr. Maurrant.

MAURRANT:

Not if they’re against law and order, they ain’t. We don’t want no foreigners comin’ in, tellin’ us how to run things.

MRS. FIORENTINO:

It’s nothing wrong to be a foreigner. Many good people are foreigners.

MAURRANT:

I’m not sayin’ anything about that…

SHIRLEY:

It’s no disgrace to be a Jew, Mr. Maurrant.

MAURRANT:

I’m not sayin’ it is. All I’m sayin’ is, what we need in this country is a little more respect for law an’ order. 

Have you heard politicians talk like this? National leaders? Some of your neighbors? Family members? I certainly have. Frank Maurrant may not have had to deal with émigrés from Africa, Viet Nam, Myanmar or Muslim countries, but in his day people from Germany, Ireland and Italy were subjected to the same hostility. In the end, to folks like Frank, a foreigner is a foreigner, and they bring trouble.

As for domestic abuse, Street Scene confirms what we have learned about this phenomenon: it doesn't have to entail physical beating. Emotional abuse is enough. Frank's wife Anna is trapped in a marriage in which she is subjected to daily criticism, criticism, accusations of being a bad wife and a bad mother. It's a marriage in which the least scrap of affection of intimacy long ago shriveled and died. She's blamed for any way in which life is not perfect; she gets no credit for anything she does for the family. It is not really Anna's infidelity that leads to violence; it's truly Frank's long-term abuse that creates the environment for the tragedy that befalls the Maurrants.

As for gun violence, it hardly needs to be stated that the sins of Anna Maurrant and her lover Steve Sankey did not merit the death penalty. Did Frank own his gun legally? In 1929 it was likely a moot point. According to this timeline of gun control laws in the United States, gun owners were not required to have a license until passage of the Federal Firearms Act of 1938, by which time Anna and Steve were cold in their graves. But it may be fair to speculate that behavior like Frank's may have led to the recognition that greater regulation might be the wiser course.

And that leaves...

….sex.

The privilege and entitlement of the men in Street Scene ranges from unwanted groping and kissing to much subtler manifestations. Here is a summary:

Daniel Buchanan, a comic character intended to be seen as a "nice guy", Daniel spends Act 1 in a nervous frenzy in anticipation of the birth of his child, expected at any moment. His #MeToo moment doesn't rise to sexual assault, but it's there: a song in which he claims, quite seriously, that childbirth is harder on the father than on the mother. Dan, Dan, Dan.... don't say stuff like that out loud, fella - it's a really bad look.

Mae Jones, daughter of the neighborhood busybody Emma Jones, appears toward the end of the first act. She's been on a date with a local swell named Dick McGann. She's ready to call it a night, but Dick wants a kiss. He makes his move, but Mae is not in the mood. Dick complains, leading to a really great line for Mae: "You seem to think I oughta hang out a flag every time some jerk decides to wipe off his mouth on me, Dick"/ Dick pleads his case in a song and dance in the form of a jitterbug. That, and some swigs from Dick's flask of gin, leave Mae in a more pliable condition. Dick gets his way; they exit to spend the night together. When she comes home in Act 2, Mae is in low spirits, obviously experiencing some regret. 

Rose Maurrant, however, is the character who spends the entire drama dealing with men who regard women as their personal property. Her first entrance is in the company of her boss, Harry Easter. They had to work late at Harry's real estate office, followed by dinner and some dancing. This dialogue ensues (NOTE: Harry is a married man. Of course):

EASTER:

Rose, I’m crazy about you.

ROSE:

Please let me go now, it’s awfully late and my father doesn’t like it when I—

EASTER:

Kiss me good night.

ROSE:

No.

EASTER:

Why not, hm? Just one kiss.

ROSE:

No.

EASTER:

Yes. (He takes her in his arms and kisses her.)

ROSE:

It wasn’t nice of you to do that.

Rose is also cornered by Mae's brother, a loutish creep named Vincent Jones. His hands are all over her when Sam Kaplan attempts to intervene. Sam gets knocked to the ground for his trouble as Vincent only gives up the harassment when his mother enters.

In her response to these men, Rose is a really good role model for women in 2018  Even Sam, the vulnerable and likeable young pre-law student who's in love with Rose, causes her to consider her position with great maturity and prevent herself from making a bad life-choice. The key exchange occurs in a duet after Anna has been killed, and Frank has been arrested. Sam begs Rose to use these events as the springboard to a new life with him as her partner.

SAM:

There's no hope for us unless we love each other,

Unless I belong to you and you belong to me.

ROSE:

Oh Sam, it's love that I want more than anything in the world.

But loving and belonging -- they're not the same.

Look at my father; my poor mother.

If she had belonged to herself, if he had belonged to himself,

It never would have happened.

And that's why, even though my heart breaks,

I can't belong to you, or have you belong to me.

Isn't it amazing that a female character first created in 1929 would be written to express that degree of enlightened independence? Rose is probably eighteen; she's not college-educated. Yet she's able to look past her attraction to Sam for the long view of their relationship; she's able to foresee patterns of behavior that allow for the possibility of future unhappiness. Rose is a great, great character. 

You know, it isn't as though our country has made NO progress as regards social issues. We've passed legislation in the areas of civil rights, women's rights, health care and other issues of vital concern.

But Street Scene reminds us of how far we have to go to fulfil our goals as a society. We need to hear Abe's hectoring complaints; we need the model of Rose's courage; we need the spectacle of abuse, violence and sexual assault fomenting tragedy.

We need this opera.