Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera (2020)

Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera" follows a composer as he adapts a 1912 dime novel masterpiece into a modern American opera. Zane Grey's tale features Jane Withersteen, a patriarchy-smashing heroine and Lassiter, the lone gunman who empowers her. "Riders of the Purple Sage" flew off bookshelves around the world and is on the Library of Congress list of "One Hundred Books that Shaped America." A century later, composer Craig Bohmler dives into Zane Grey's cabin during a rainstorm. There amid posters from Grey's Hollywood Westerns, he discovers a story with the grand dimensions of opera. What begins as a challenge between a composer and his librettist evolves into a creative posse of artists, musicians, and singers sharing a singular vision. When fine art painter Ed Mell agrees to translate Arizona's landscape into a monumental set, the new work accelerates toward its world premiere. The power of the novel and its heroine are reclaimed opening night in an opera that marries music theatre, cutting-edge stagecraft, and matinee heroes.