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Carlisle Floyd's Susannah sits close to my heart: it draws me to my identity as an American, as a woman, as a member of society at large, as a singer (when I was only 20 years old, it was the very first operatic role I ever performed!), and now it extends its pull on me as a director. Rediscovering this story (loosely based on the Apocryphal account of "Susanna and the Elders" from the Book of Daniel) inspired me in terms of not just its relevance of depicting a community buried in dogma, narrow-mindedness, and intolerance but also, because of the connection between the tale’s truth and the ro...

ACT ONE The people of New Hope Valley, a rural Tennessee town in the Appalachian Mountains, have assembled for a square dance on a hot July night. The Elders’ wives gossip about the beautiful young Susannah, calling her a “shameless wench” raised by a drunkard brother. Reverend Olin Blitch arrives and confidently introduces himself. As the visiting revival preacher, he intends to bring sinners to repentance. Noticing Susannah, he joins her in the square dance. Little Bat walks Susannah home that night. Staring up at the starry sky, she shares her dreams of leaving New Hope Valley. Sam arrives, and Susannah asks him to sing her favorite song before they go to ...

As we celebrate the 100th birthday of Carlisle Floyd, we join the ranks of his innumerable admirers in recognizing his singular stature as the Dean of American Opera. With his death in 2021 at age 95, Floyd left not only a legacy, but also a standard by which modern American opera can justly be assessed. His compositional procedure emphasized the pre-eminence of textual prosody—the music of the text. There’s a reason why his characters seem comfortable in their operatic skin: their creator has vanquished from their stage-language any pretense or stylized contrivance that would interfere with their unalloyed naturalness. Despite a lifetime of steady operatic output that included such operas as W...

As we approach Carlisle Floyd’s 2026 birth centennial, it is mandatory to honor him for the creation of thirteen such groundbreaking operas as Susannah, Of Mice and Men, Cold Sassy Tree, and his last, Prince of Players; yet it further behooves us to recognize that his life and career encompassed the work of at least five men: librettist, composer, educator, administrator, and spokesperson for his craft and its sponsoring institutions. A half-century of teaching at Florida State University (1949-1975) and University of Houston (1975-1996) informed generations of singers, conductors, coaches, and composers; and into his nineties he offered private mentoring to such twentieth- and twenty-first century talents as Mark Adamo, Ma...

THE LESSONS OF SUSANNAH After half a century, Carlisle Floyd’s opera still has much to teach us By Roger Pines Susannah has been performed thousands of times over the past seven decades. It reaches out to seemingly every audience, not just with Carlisle Floyd’s magnificent yet instantly accessible music, but also with a story that has never lost its relevance. This was a deeply personal work for Floyd. Although its hymns and folk-like moments were entirely his own, they were very much in the spirit and tradition of music he’d always known. As a child he attended revival meetings, which he remembered as “very terrifying,” with an unnerving ...

Home, Community, and Sense of Place Exhibition Partners: Joslyn Castle & Gardens and Opera Omaha Exhibition Dates: January 9 – January 27, 2026 Location: Joslyn Castle & Gardens Special Partnership Installation: Select works will move to the Orpheum Theater January 28–February 1, 2026, for Opera Omaha’s performance of Susannah Submission Deadline: Jan 1, 2026 Entry Fee: No fee to enter Exhibition Overview Home, Community, and Sense of Place is an exhibition that explores the deep and often complex connections between belonging and the idea of home. Artists are invited to reflect on how individuals and communities experience, construct, and define place. What does home look like for you—or in what landscape do you feel most grounded? How do c...