Sara McKinnon
Synopsis
Note: This synopsis outlines the new version of the opera distilled from the original to focus more on the main characters.
Act One
Prologue: The American Southwest in the 1870s. In a dreamscape, Sara is haunted by memories of Civil War atrocities [mp3].
Scene 1: John McKinnon, accompanied by his wife Sara, arrives in the town of Vida Nueva to become sheriff. Sara is touched by a gift of flowers from Lucia Delarosa, daughter of . Doctor Felipe Delorosa.
Scene 2: At a dance, Felipe becomes entranced with Sara before learning that she is John's wife [mp3]. A menacing stranger, Florentino Ralston, interrupts the dance for a closer view of Sara. When he turns his attention to Lucia, John instructs him to leave. Florentino refuses, challenges John to a duel and kills him. In the ensuing chaos, Florentino tells Sara that he has fallen in love with her [mp3]. Felipe tries to save John's life, but fails.
Scene 3: At the cemetery John McKinnon is buried. Sara erupts into a rage against the world. Stunned by her fury, Felipe nonetheless feels drawn to her.
Act Two
Scene 1: At the cemetery Sara struggles with going on alone now that John has been murdered. She is startled when Felipe arrives, and he reassures her that he is there to visit his wife's grave. When Sara asks about her, Sara is stunned by the depth of love that Felipe expresses for his dead wife. When Sara suggests she could never love like that, Felipe thinks she is mistaken. Sara grows angry and tells Felipe she wants to be left alone.
Scene 2: Bud Treon has been drinking, and he holds Mayor Pickard at knife point, angered that he has been called a thief. Felipe tries to calm Bud down. Sara enters, puts a gun to Bud’s head, and gets Bud to back down. Felipe is furious at her recklessness. The townspeople become upset that they have no sheriff. Sara volunteers to be sheriff. Bud challenges her to draw, and she easily shoots his gun away. She tells the townspeople she intends to kill Florentino. After some arguing, the mayor appoints Sara sheriff.
Scene 3: Sara dreams. In her dream John, Felipe, and Florentino enter her home. Soon only Florentino is left, and he tells Sara he intends to possess her as his own. Florentino expresses his desire for Sara [mp3], unconcerned that she hates him for killing her husband. When Sara awakens, she is enraged and repeats her vow to kill Florentino.
Act Three
Scene 1: Alone, Felipe finds himself obsessed with Sara, but doesn’t know how to approach her. Sara enters and apologizes for having doubted him. Felipe asks how her parents died, and eventually Sara reveals terrible things that happened when renegades attacked their farm. Johnnie’s ghost joins her in telling the story. For revenge, Sara (at age fifteen) executed three men. Sara says that her fate is seek revenge and to be alone. Felipe tells her that she is wrong. He tells her that their fate is to love each other.
Scene 2: Sara dreams of Florentino again. In her dream Florentino tells Sara that soon they will begin their new life together. Felipe appears and tells Sara to resist Florentino, but eventually Florentino and Sara embrace.
Scene 3: At the town’s Independence Day celebration Florentino appears, and, holding Lucia at gunpoint, tries to force Sara to leave with him. Lucia eventually breaks free, and Sara shoots Florentino. Wounded, Florentino tries to shoot Sara, but Felipe risks his life to prevent this. As Felipe then tends to Florentino’s wound, Sara moves forward to kill him. Lucia stops her. Realizing her desire for revenge endangered both Lucia and Felipe, Sara turns to leave. Felipe and Lucia stop her, and tell her that they love her. Sara tells Felipe that she is unworthy of his love, but he disagrees. He asks if he may court her, to the delight of the townspeople she agrees, and they sing a love duet [mp3].