Everlasting Faint

If you think opera is all just about barbers in Seville, catch this world-premiere reading by University Opera, based on the true story of Elva Heaster Shue, who in 1897 was murdered by her husband in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. A legend of her ghost sprang up in the area — started by the dead woman’s mother, who blamed the husband for her daughter’s murder. The story, which offers insights on the plight of women in the justice system, has been the subject of a number of stage adaptations; this is the first opera, with libretto by Sandra Flores-Strand and music by Scott Gendel. And by the way, “reading” in this instance means full-on singing. Tickets include a pre-show talk with Scott Gendel and Sandra Flores-Strand at 2 p.m.

media release: Everlasting Faint

A world premiere reading of a new opera by Scott Gendel, music; Sandra Flores-Strand, libretto

Ticket includes entry to pre-show talk with Scott Gendel and Sandra Flores-Strand at 2 pm in Collins Recital Hall.

In 1897, Elva Heaster Shue was murdered by her husband Trout in Greenbrier, WV. The coroner dismissed her death as natural causes (“everlasting faint,” a dismissive diagnosis for women’s unexplained deaths in those times). But after her mother Mary starts receiving nightly visits from Elva’s ghost, along with other ghosts from Trout’s past, she pushes to bring Trout to trial and to justice, fighting alongside those ghosts, through layers of bias in cases involving crimes against women.

University Opera presents a world-premiere reading of a brand new opera, Everlasting Faint. Based on the legend of the Greenbrier Ghost with libretto by Sandra Flores-Strand and music by Scott Gendel, this work is both an entertaining old-fashioned ghost story as well as a serious piece that addresses cases of bias involving crimes against women.