Today : World première of 'Twenty-Seven' by Ricky Ian Gordon in St. Louis (MO)

Today, the new opera of composer Ricky Ian Gordon, Twenty-Seven will be performed in St. Louis (MO).

It is the composer's sixth opera, after The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1996), The Grapes of Wrath (2007), Rappahannock County (2011), Morning Star (2013), A Coffin in Egypt (2014).

Royce Vavrek wrote the libretto. Here is the overview of this new opera, according to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis website (http://www.opera-stl.org) :

Paris roared in the 1920s, inspiring the art and literature of a Lost Generation of expatriates. At the epicenter of this creative explosion was Gertrude Stein, whose salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus became a second home for such luminaries as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Picasso. 

The cast includes Stephanie Blythe (Gertrude Stein), Elizabeth Futral (Alice B. Toklas), Theo Lebow (Picasso and Fitzgerald), Tobias Greenhalgh (Leo Stein and Man Ray), Daniel Brevik (Hemingway and Matisse). Michael Christie conducts and James Robinson directs.