Intro

Slender. Dressed in black and white, dark ponytail wagging at the base of her neck. Feet tapping. Arms waving.

Like a music note personified she vibrates at her own unique frequency.

Watching her during an early sing-thru of the opera she composed, it's impossible to separate her from her creation. Like a new mother and her child, Libby Larsen and “Picnic” meld together.

She sits near the conductor, Ted Taylor, who also plays piano for the rehearsal. Occasionally, the red-haired Taylor will tap his baton or hum. Da-dum-pum-pum.

When she offers to rework a tricky staccato section, he shakes his head.

“I like the staccato,” he says. “It's hotter that way.”

“Do you really?”

“Oh yes.”

Brava!

The Minneapolis-based Larsen specializes in text-driven opera and is especially interested in works by female writers such as Willa Cather and Mary Shelley. She made her mark on the modern opera scene with her 1990 opera “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus,” inspired by Shelley's gothic masterpiece.

As a result of the Students First Campaign, UNCG secured a $150,000 gift from the late philanthropist Charles H. Babcock in 2004. David Holley, director of UNCG Opera Theatre, knew he wanted to commission a new American opera for the School of Music. And he knew he wanted Larsen, a big name in opera, to compose it.

Larsen is known for making opera accessible to modern audiences. For her, “accessible” is all about connection. “It's all about connecting, spirit to spirit,” she says. “It's about opening music up in ways that people can connect with it.”

When Larsen accepted the commission, the next step was deciding on a play. Later they would choose someone to write the libretto, the text of the opera.

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Composer Libby Larsen throws herself into a cast sing-thru for “Picnic.”

Larsen had longed to write an opera based on “Picnic” since she saw the film version — starring William Holden and Kim Novak — as a child. “Picnic,” written by William Inge, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1953.

Holley was unfamiliar with “Picnic.” The story revolves around a down-on-his-luck former college football star named Hal, who shakes things up in a small Midwestern town when he gets involved with the female lead, Madge. “I thought, This woman wants to write an opera of ‘Picnic.’ The least I can do is research it.

“We didn't want to tell her, ‘Just deliver us an opera,’” Holley says. “I was very interested in being a part of the creative process, and I built workshops into the schedule and budget from the beginning.”

Holley read the play, saw the film and fell in love with the story. When he saw a production of “Picnic” at Greensboro College he was blown away by the possibilities for transforming it into an opera. He could see it evolving in his mind's eye.

“It was instant. We've got to do this. When I called her, she started to cry.”

She envisioned the play as an opera with a heavy jazz influence. At an early workshop for “Picnic,” she brought along two pieces of music — pre-1950s jazz and post-1950s jazz.

“A lot of the change was because of Elvis,” Holley says. “It wasn't proper for people to move their hips in public before Elvis. The play is about societal norms and expectations and the ways people were allowed to move in public. In the play, Hal, the drifter, brings jazz to town.”

Larsen and Holley spoke by phone for hours, discussing voice types, characters, relationships. Then Holley casually asked the question. “So, who do you want to write the libretto?”

“You.”

Holley, who had never written a libretto, was floored. “Me! Why?”

“Because you love this play.”

He was silent for a second. “You're right,” he told her.