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Article: 'Opera noir' latest new offering at Santa Fe Opera
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- July 24, 2009
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Gunshots. A dead lover. A cigarette-puffing leading lady whose neck could end up in a noose. Welcome to "opera noir."
The Santa Fe Opera's latest original offering, "The Letter," is classic opera mayhem in a compact, stylish package.
Based on a short story _ later turned into a play _ by W. Somerset Maugham, "The Letter" also was an Oscar-nominated movie in 1940 starring Bette Davis.
The tale of love and revenge on a steamy rubber plantation is "naturally operatic," said Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec, who teamed up with librettist Terry Teachout to create the opera that has its world premiere Saturday night.
"We're not trying to make an opera out of a movie," Moravec said in an ...