Sara McKinnon

Synopsis

Note: This synopsis outlines the new version of the opera currently being composed using a reworked libretto that focuses more closely on the three main characters (see cast list). This is a radical reworking of the opera, and this new version will eventually be retitled. Note that the music samples all come from the first version and production of the opera.

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 Diego Delorosa.

Scene 2: At a dance, Diego 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]. Diego 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, Diego 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 Diego arrives, but he tells 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 Diego expresses for his dead wife. When Sara suggests she could never love like that, Diego thinks she is mistaken. Sara grows angry and tells Diego 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. Diego tries to calm Bud down. Sara enters, puts a gun to Bud’s head, and gets Bud to back down. Diego 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, Diego says that since they can’t stop her from pursuing her husband’s killer, they might as well make use of her, and the mayor appoints Sara sheriff. Left alone with Father Salazar, Diego confesses to him that he has feelings for Sara.

Scene 3: Sara dreams. In her dream John and Florentino come to her. 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: Lucia, with Sara’s support, convinces to Diego let buy material for a new dress. After Lucia leaves, Sara apologizes for having doubted him earlier. Diego tells her he would like another chance to dance with her, and she says that he is welcome to ask. Diego asks how her parents died, and Sara reveals terrible things that happened when renegades attacked their farm during the Civil War. For revenge, Sara (as as teenager) executed four men. Sara says that her fate is to seek revenge and to be alone. Diego tells her she is wrong, and that their fate is to love each other. Sara leaves, convinced that revenge must come first. Diego wonders if he will ever be able to hold her in his arms.

Scene 2: Sara dreams of Florentino again. In her dream Florentino tells Sara that soon they will begin their new life together. Diego appears and tells Sara to resist Florentino, but in her dream she eventually embraces Florentino passionately. Florentino tells her that she must postpone her desires until he comes to her in the flesh. Sara awakens from her dream, horrified that she has just dreamed of Florentino as a lover. She now feels unworthy of Diego and thinks he will be safer when she is gone from his life. She wonders if she is just as much a monster as Florentino, and feels that one of them must die.

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 Diego risks his life to prevent this. As Diego then tends to Florentino’s wound, Sara moves forward to kill him. Lucia stops her, and Diego tends to Florentino’s wound. Lucia is fine, but her new dress is torn, and she and Sara leave to mend it. In the evening, with calm restored, Sara and Diego meet again. She brings up dancing, and Diego impetuously asks if he may court her. To the delight of the townspeople she agrees, and they sing a love duet [mp3].