"An Our Town Aside"

Our Town, it seems, was recently turned into an opera by none other than Ned Rorem, an openly gay composer. According to the press, two other queer composers - Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein - tried to get Thornton Wilder to sign on to an Our Town opera during his lifetime, but the playwright refused. (It's interesting that all these queers were enamored of such a heterosexual play.) But Tappan Wilder, Thornton's nephew and executor of his estate, gave his blessing to the Rorem opera. You can read more about it at Rorem's website.

Our Town, the opera