Let's start with Ms. Hellman. The Little Foxes, was the basis for the 1949 Regina, whose lyrics and music were by Marc Blitzstein. The setting is Bowden, Alabama, in 1900. We first view the Giddens family when they are on their best behavior, charming Marshall, a Northerner. But Regina Giddens' two brothers, Ben and Oscar Hubbard, are secretly conspiring to keep in the family their earnings from a business deal they have with their visitor: for Regina's daughter, Zan, to marry Oscar's son, Leo; and for their sister's husband, Horace, who controls his wife's income, to sign on with them for her share. Horace (who has a heart problem) smells something fishy and refuses to sign; Oscar meanwhile convinces Leo to steal bonds from Horace's safe-deposit box.
Act II opens with preparations for a lavish ball at which Regina is of course the belle; it soon becomes clear that the townspeople hate the Hubbard brothers. Act III, on the other hand, is a moving scene in the kitchen with the "good" people of the opera: Horace, the Giddens' warm-natured black servant, Addie, and Zan's indeed fluttery aunt Birdie, Oscar's alcoholic wife. It starts out peacefully as they listen to the rain outside and to the field workers singing a gospel song. but then Birdie poignantly confesses why she drinks, revealing Oscar married her only so that Ben could take over her beloved home...and its cotton fields. She fears that under pressure by the Hubbards, Zan will share her fate of always being hushed up: "In twenty years you'll be just like me, trailing after them like me."
Birdie didn't bank on her sister-in-law. When Horace discovers the bonds are missing, he tells Regina that he is changing his will, leaving her only the bonds, which he realizes must somehow be in her brothers' possession. This tips Regina into taunting him into having a fatal heart attack (Mourning Becomes Electra, anyone?). Having herself been victim to her brothers' greed; she triumphantly demands from Oscar and Ben a larger share than theirs from the Marshall deal, lest she put them in jail for theft: "Who wouldn't weep for a woman whose brothers cheat and steal from her." They have no option but to comply. As the opera ends, Zan, who sees her mother's hand in Horace's death, abandons her family, disgusted by the Hubbard ruthlessness that Regina herself shares. Zan's curious exit line, "Are you afraid, Mama?" implies even money will never buy Regina happiness.
