Sara McKinnon

Opera in Three Acts

2001, rev. 2002.

Duration: 140 minutes

Replaced by A Rose in Flames. (See the composer notes below.)

Premiere: Doña Ana Lyric Opera, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, July 27, 2001

Premiere of Revised Version: CU Opera at the University of Colorado in April 2003.

Composer notes: Playwright Mark Medoff and I wrote the first version of Sara McKinnon for Doña Ana Lyric Opera at New Mexico State University. After that production we made a number of changes, and the revised version was produced at the University of Colorado.

Both productions were enthusiastically received (see reviews). Nonetheless, a few years later Mark and I decided that we could improve the opera by increasing its focus and intensity. In 2008 and 2009 we undertook doing that so ruthlessly that we were left with only fragments of the original opera—we had cut twenty characters down to nine, eliminated multiple scenes and subplots, and changed the names, histories, and personal relationships of some of the main characters.

Given how little was left from the original, we decided to take these fragments and create a new opera, A Rose in Flames. Mark wrote a new libretto, incorporating and rewriting the fragments to fit our new dramatic intent. The new opera focuses more intensely on the principal characters, which we feel results in a more emotionally compelling work. Sara was withdrawn to make way for Rose.