Composed on his honeymoon in 1951, Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti paints an intimate picture of the troubled marriage of a young suburban couple Sam and Dinah, longing for love and the ability to communicate. As we follow their journey through a façade of overcompensation and materialism, Dinah sings one of the most famous mezzo-soprano arias, “What a movie!” depicting the movie Trouble in Tahiti she saw one afternoon. Emerging into a dreamlike sequence in which she immediately feels embarrassed for even conjuring the fantasy, we understand the yearning to escape within all of us.

Signor Deluso is an over the top, one-act opera by composer and librettist Thomas Pasatieri. The opera contains love melodies, musical patter, and confrontations and harmonies of resolution. It is loosely based on Molière’s 1660 comedy Sganarelle, ou Le Cocu imaginaire (Sganarelle or “The Imaginary Cuckold”). Performed in English, this piece resonates with vivacious, over-the-top comedic characters, familial expectations, and exuberant lovers, all leaping to wrong conclusions.