[1] The premiere, conducted in Houston by John DeMain on June 17, 1983, was a double bill: Trouble in Tahiti, intermission, A Quiet Place.

Underlying it all is an orchestral fabric in a wide variety of styles that is of truly symphonic density – the opposite of Trouble in Tahiti.

Bernstein compared the four-part shape of the opera to a Mahler symphony in an interview with a Houston critic last week.

And the last scene is "one of those adagios", referring to the grave and noble slow movements that conclude works like the Mahler Third and Ninth symphonies.

[3] The work was revised again and subsequently performed at the Vienna State Opera with the ORF Symphonie Orchester under the composer's baton in April 1986.

[5] In contrast to earlier responses, which had been lukewarm, Alden's production drew high praise from both critics and audiences.

(In the three-act form) A chorus sings scattered musical phrases such as "My Heart Shall Be Thy Garden", "Cakes and Friends We Choose With Care", and "Lost Time is Never Found".

In a series of fragmented conversations, they discuss the circumstances of Dinah's death (the car accident from the prologue), mourn her loss and reveal some of what has happened to her family over the years.

At the conclusion of the readings the guests file past Dinah's coffin and depart, leaving Sam, Junior, Dede, and François facing one another for the first time.

Sam's first words are to Junior, but give way to an explosion of 30 years' anger, reprisal, and confused grief directed at all three young people.

In a trio of reminiscence, Junior, Dede, and François recall – via half-remembered letters home – a long-ago time when they were close with their fathers.

The scene opens with a scat singing jazz trio which advertises the charms of ideal family life in "Suburbia, U.S.A." of the 1950s.

On her psychiatrist's couch Dinah relates a dream; as she struggled to find her way out of a dying garden, a voice beckoned to her, promising that love would lead her to "a quiet place".

Young Sam summons his (unseen) secretary to his office, pointedly asks if he has ever made any passes at her, and takes her quiet demurrals as acquiescence to his version of what happened.

François' anger provokes a psychotic phase that takes Junior through some painful associations to an important revelation – that he loves and needs his father.

In that distantly remembered afternoon, rather than going to Junior's school play, Young Sam has competed for a handball trophy and won.

Also avoiding Junior's play, Dinah goes to a movie – a trite Technicolor musical called Trouble in Tahiti.

Young Sam approaches his front door that night with his trophy, but with dread – even winners "must pay through the nose".

As the jazz trio sings of evening shadows and loved ones together, Young Sam and Dinah try to have a talk after dinner, but they cannot make any headway.

The kids tell Sam they are thinking of staying on a few days, and all four euphorically imagine the joys of being together – until a little disagreement becomes a vicious argument.

At its climax Junior hurls Dinah's diary into the air, and everything they have achieved since the debacle at the funeral parlor falls down around them.