Rorem to compose ‘Our Town’ opera

Although Aaron Copland wrote a distinguished score for the 1940 film of Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town,” Wilder denied him -- and other composers -- permission to turn the play into an opera. Now, though, American composer Ned Rorem has secured the rights.

With a libretto by poet J. D. (“Sandy”) McClatchy, Rorem’s “Our Town” is scheduled to premiere at Indiana University -- the chief among several co-commissioners -- in spring 2006. Performances will follow at New York’s Lake George Opera Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School and the North Carolina School of the Arts.

But there’s more. Paula M. Kimper (composer of the 1998 opera “Patience & Sarah”) has received rights to create an opera from Wilder’s 1927 novel, “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.”

Her opera, sponsored by Brooklyn-based American Opera Projects, is already in workshop trials and will premiere in New York in February.

Has the Wilder estate loosened its rights policy? “I don’t know if it’s a ‘loosening,’ ” says A. Tappan Wilder, the playwright’s 64-year-old nephew and literary executor. “But since I took over the reins about 10 years ago, I’ve been reviewing all the old policies, and I came to feel that some of the traditions that Thornton maintained would be appropriate to change. In general, he felt that when he wrote a property one way, he was reluctant to do it in another. Copland’s music, actually, inspired me to look at the traditions again.”

Wilder went to McClatchy, president of the Thornton Wilder Society as well as editor of the quarterly Yale Review, for advice on the choice of a composer. “I was glad to follow his lead,” he says. “I brought everything I could get my hands on of Rorem’s. I thought he would be just marvelous.”

As for Kimper, “I’m a great admirer of ‘Patience & Sarah,’ ” Wilder says. “Paula is a young, exciting composer. She’s closing in on the end. I’ve heard it in various forms so far. I’m very pleased.”

In 1989, the late Joffrey Ballet dancer Philip Jerry did win the rights to create a ballet version of “Our Town” for the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Ballet. Ballet Pacifica gave the West Coast premiere in 1991.

“Permission for that actually happened before my watch,” Wilder says.

-- Chris Pasles