I Want Magic is a key aria from the third act of André Previn’s 1995 opera, A Streetcar Named Desire.
With a libretto by Philip Littell, the work, premiered by San Francisco Opera in 1998, is based on the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. Renée Fleming appeared in the role of Blanche Dubois, a promiscuous, aging Southern belle who escapes into a veiled fantasy world to avoid confronting the harsh realities of life.
Blanche’s soliloquy includes the line, “I don’t want realism. I want magic.” She has just been stood up on her birthday by Mitch, and they have argued. She forbids him to turn on a light. Rejecting reality, she clings to a dreamy world of imagination.
Haunting and lushly beautiful, Previn’s aria contains echoes of the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Richard Strauss, and Samuel Barber.
Recordings
- Previn: I Want Magic (“A Streetcar Named Desire”), Renée Fleming, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra reneefleming.com
- Renée Fleming in Conversation with André Previn: “A Streetcar Named Desire”
Featured Image: Renée Fleming in Previn’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ in 1998, photograph by Marty Sohl