FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PITTSBURGH.(Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

The Pittsburgh Symphony's "world premiere of the fully staged concert version" of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire was a leaner, meaner version of the opera that had its premiere in San Francisco in 1998. Previn claims to have trimmed about half an hour of music, though even so -- with two intermissions of moderate length -- on January 14 the performance at Heinz Hall clocked in at three hours, eighteen minutes. The composer also thinned out the orchestration to make it more singer-friendly in a staging that placed the drama on a raised set upstage, while, down front, Previn conducted the orchestra on normal stage level. It worked pretty well, though the audience was clearly fidgety by Act III and confused by details of the drama. For while the Pittsburgh Symphony, playing superbly under the composer's baton, did not overpower the singers in sheer volume, it did often cover the words, and the librettos provided were essentially unreadable with the house lights turned down. (This was Previn's first outing with his score since the premiere run.)

The set, designed by John Michael Deegan and Sarah G. Conly, made economical use of staircases, scaffolding and rear projections, with just enough space to accommodate the two rooms of the Kowalskis' tiny apartment. Director David Kneuss kept the physical action concise and clear, and his cast -- mostly drawn from ...