''The Scarlet Professor ''is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

by the American composer

Eric Sawyer Eric W. Sawyer (born June 2, 1962 in Brookhaven, New York) is an American orchestral composer, pianist and professor of music at Amherst College. He has studied as an undergraduate at Harvard College, where he was selected as a Harvard Junior Fel ...

with

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Harley Erdman, based on the biography by

Barry Werth Barry Werth is an American author and journalist. His work has appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', '' GQ'', the '' Smithsonian'', and the ''MIT Technology Review''. He has also served as an instructor in journalism at Smith Colle ...

Performance history

The world premieres of the fully staged opera occurred on September 15–17, 2017, at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

where the events that inspired the performance took place. The opera was performed without intermission with running time of about one hour and 40 minutes. A symposium on the

Arvin Arvin is a city in Kern County, California. Arvin is located southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of . As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,304, up from 12,956 at the 2000 census. In 2007, the United States Environmental Protec ...

case was held all day on September 16. The following weekend the opera was performed with a cast of young artists from the Five Colleges consortium of Western Massachusetts.

Roles

Instrumentation

The 9-piece instrumental ensemble consisted of piano, percussion, flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone, and strings, with both electric and double bass.

Reception

Reviewer Marvin J. Ward found the opera a "compelling and captivating work", adding "...composer Eric Sawyer has a penchant for choosing historical events, especially local ones, as the subjects of his operas. This is the third that I have seen, each more polished and refined than its predecessor, with ''The Scarlet Professor'' scoring a 10/10 in my book." ''The Scarlet Professor'' won the 2019 ''American Prize'' in opera composition.

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlet Professor, The Operas 2017 operas English-language operas Operas based on literature Operas set in the 20th century Operas set in the United States Operas based on real people Cultural depictions of educators Cultural depictions of Truman Capote LGBT-related operas