In June 1983, Leonard Bernstein's much awaited opera, A Quiet Place, opened at the Houston Grand Opera under the baton of John DeMain. The premiere generated national and international attention that was quite exceptional in the world of American opera. During a time when both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera tended to shy away from new works, what seemed like an unlikely site for this premiere, combined with the production cost of well over $1 million, made the opera worthy of great anticipation.

The composer, of course, was central to the hype. Bernstein had always had a strong affinity for theatrical forms both on Broadway and on the concert stage: His early works included the musicals On the Town and Wonderful Town and a one-act chamber opera, Trouble in Tahiti; he achieved superstardom with West Side Story; and he also used the dramatic form in Mass. However, he had not fully realized his artistic goals in opera. Despite the global fame he achieved as a conductor, he had not yet had the opportunity to conduct as many operas as he wished. As a composer for the operatic stage, Bernstein did not earn critical or commercial success with his operetta Candide at its premiere in 1956, despite the work's musical brilliance and philosophical wit. Even the greatly anticipated musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner for the nation's bicentennial in 1976, was a fl at-out failure (see chapter 8). As he entered his sixties and became more conscious of his mortality, Bernstein's desire to write a serious opera intensified. Audiences, too, were eager to see an opera by the man who had grown from an American icon into a world-renowned maestro.

A new commission made it possible for Bernstein to finally realize his goal. The work was a joint commission of the Houston Grand Opera (HGO), Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, making it the first triple transatlantic commission in operatic history.