André Previn, “I Want Magic”

“I Want Magic” from A Streetcar Named Desire

by Candice Luo | March 27, 2021

Blanche Dubois’ aria “I Want Magic” from André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire—a fantasia that illustrates the battle between two personas: a sociopathic nutcase and a romantic magician, both of whom live within a southern woman dressed in a cheap evening gown.

Previn’s opera itself is based on the play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. It is one of the most performed modern-era American operas, first premiered in 1998. Previn followed the text faithfully, little to no rendition was made upon the original plot and characters, and the libretto is strictly based on the plain text as in the play. Bordering on Broadway musical theatre, the contemporary opera embodies lots of musical gestures that recall the late-Romantic musical period, with Strauss-like melodies. As well, Previn’s uses of clashing harmonies and clusters of keys are grand and emotive, as transparent in Blanche’s aria “I Want Magic”.

The aria is from Act III of the opera. Within the scene, Blanche gets into an argument with Mitch after Mitch stands her up on her birthday. Previously in the play, Blanche’s brother-in-law Stanley informs Mitch about Blanche’s distasteful past. As a result, Mitch stops trying to impress Blanche. During the couple’s argument, Mitch attempts turning the light on in order to see Blanche more clearly. But Blanche orders him not to, resisting both verbally and physically in almost a begging manner.

Previn uses one of the most memorable orchestral gestures from the opera (as shown in the image below) to highlight the imbalance of Blanche’s imagination and reality.

This musical material keeps recurring throughout the aria. The orchestral gesture is made up of a gradual, step-wise build-up and followed by suspended harmonies in chords that leap down. This creates open harmonies, suspended on a cadential V6/4 that remains unresolved. It may be considered as a leitmotif in Blanche’s aria. Previn’s beautiful writing of this gesture makes it sounds as if someone opened their French window and a dreamy breeze immediately filled the room, and the curtains danced to the balcony full of starlight. The music almost echoes that dreamy place in Blanche’s psyche where she has full control over what her reality is. This would also make sense with the text proceeding and following each appearance of the material.

The first appearance of this material is at the beginning of the piece. Blanche then proceeds to say “real, who wants real? I know I don’t want it.” In the first part of this leitmotif, the ascending chords build tension that needs resolution. This can suggest the confrontation of reality. The falling chordal leaps in the second chunk of the gesture mimic Blanche's disregard of the truth, and as the music resolves into rich, dream-like harmonies, she goes off to a dreamland, defying reality with her words.

Then the second time with different pitches, however the gesture and the overall shape and direction of the material remain the same. Part of this material will appear again in what some listeners may identify as the climax of the song, when Blanche sings her high B and proceeds to speak her one sprecht line in the song. It is interesting to note that, as shown in the image that follows, that only the first half of the musical material is used. (Instead of an inversion, Previn writes this one so that it is in root position. Although it still holds the same harmonies, the subtle change brings a different colour and grounding to the music) It is used twice but never ends with the falling chords, thus never reaches resolution. Here in the piece, there is a flip between B major and minor. As well, the structure of the gesture shows differences in punctuational purposes to unravel nuances in both the text and the music. It makes sense because Blanche has to quickly snap into reality and stop Mitch from turning on that light as he walks over to the light switch. The orchestral gesture suggests Blanche is interrupted in her imagination.

Her leitmotif/musical-cue comes back and leads into the only sprecht/spoken line of the aria. Sprecht, or spoken, is a rather common expression used in post-Romantic and contemporary music; it is notably more often used in works that involve obscure and unstable characters like Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Engelbert Humperdinck’s Königskinder. Because sprecht/spoken is cross between speaking and singing, the tone quality of speech is easily contoured and emotions usually heightened. This exaggeration of speech almost indicates the character's inability to carry on a “normal”, or a normally-expected melodic line.

At this point in the aria, as well, Mitch does not seem convinced in Blanche’s pursuit and claim of “giving magic to people”. As Blanche continues to defend herself, she becomes even more desperate to hold onto her “magic”. Mitch’s attempt to turn on the light threatens her, because the light (especially symbolically speaking) would shatter her “magic”.

We first hear of Blanche’s fear/hatred of being seen in light way back in Scene I when she orders Stella to turn off the light. “Turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare.” This is a significant quote that introduces one of the play’s most important motifs—light and dark as symbols of reality and fantasy. Not only does Blanche not want her aging appearance and cheap luxury clothes to be seen in the physical light, she does not want to be revealed in the light of truth. She is so deep in her delusions that she prefers to be kept in the shadows, whether or not others see through her fabricated perfection. She avoids the “merciless glare” of reality through lies, alcoholism, and sexual conquests.

Earlier in Scene I, Blanche says “I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!”

The vocal melodic writing throughout the piece is quite speech-like: the direction in which a phrase develops follows the natural flow of the language as well as expected growth of both Blanche’s intentions and emotions. For example, the pitch-direction and range of “magic! Yes! That’s what I want. That’s what I try to give to people” sound fairly natural in speech: ascending for the “magic! Yes!” exclamations; stable pitch-movements for the confirmed, almost under-breath “that's what I want”; and then jumping to a lower range for “that’s what I try to give to people” which almost indicates a sense of hopelessness and unfulfilled intentions.

The general soundscape of the aria is free, dream-like, unresolved with lots of open harmonies. The music does not necessarily portray the couple’s bickering. Harmonically and structurally speaking, the prelude and interludes between Blanche’s lines do not oppose or approach her vocal melodies in a confronting manner. One can argue that instead, the music “speaks” Blanche better than her libretto—it indicates the suspense in her blurred visions caused by an overload of shame, vanity, fear, distraught, disbelief and despair. The music does a sublime job at portraying that dreamy, fabricated world Blanche lives in, verbally and psychologically. Because there are arguably no strong cadences, nor is there a strong sense of chord progressions that unfold towards resolution, the harmonies can unfold every-which-way. It echoes Blanche’s character because neither her or the music is grounded, they are both somewhere between mindfulness and insensibility. Full, open, and suspenseful harmonies echo the lies and “magic” Blanche presents to people. The ever-unfolding melodic lines and the never-resolving orchestral accompaniment almost indicate her inability to distinguish reality from her fantasies, her inability to live with her distasteful past, and her failure to construct/reconstruct both herself and social images.

Blanche is a social pariah. Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, she is an insecure and desolate individual. Previn takes on more of a romantic portrayal of Blanche, his focus is more on constructing a perfect world which Blanche tries so hard to construct. He creates a dreamy, magical, and almost euphoric soundscape for her narration, when in reality, Blanche lives in a constant state of perpetual panic due to her fading beauty and insecurities, where her false propriety could easily backfire and become the doom of her.