Reuben, Reuben (opera)
1955 opera by Marc Blitzstein / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Reuben, Reuben is a two-act, "urban folk opera"[1] (or a "musical play") by Marc Blitzstein, written from 1953 to 1955. Set in New York's Little Italy and inspired by the Faust legend,[2] it concerns Reuben, a suicidal veteran who has received a medical discharge because he cannot speak. His disorder serves as an allegory of the difficulties of interpersonal communication in society, and of the eventual triumph of love over these difficulties and over the death wish.[3] It was shown at the Shubert Theatre in Boston from October 10 to 22, 1955.[4] Hanya Holm choreographed, Robert Lewis stage directed, and Cheryl Crawford produced the show.[5][6]
Blitzstein himself described the opera as a, "picture of New York: the gaiety, plight, awareness and unawareness of anger, bitterness, insouciance, ardor, urgency, even wisdom, mellowness. All trapped: fighting the trap, or supine within it.”[7]