| The Postman Always Rings Twice | |
| Composer: | Stephen Paulus |
| Librettist: | Colin Graham |
| Language: | English |
| Premiere Location: | Opera Theatre of St. Louis |
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1982 opera with a libretto written by Colin Graham and music by Stephen Paulus, based on the 1934 novel by James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice.
The opera was the first of four commissioned from Paulus by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. It opened to generally strong reviews, and prompted the critic from the New York Times, in an otherwise mixed notice, to call Paulus "a young man on the road to big things".[1]
The opera has since been performed numerous times around the world, and Paulus composed eight more operas before his death in 2014.
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 17 June 1982[2] (Conductor: C. William Harwood) |
|---|---|---|
| Cora | soprano | Kathryn Bouleyn |
| Katz | tenor | Carroll Freeman |
| Nick | tenor | Michael Myers |
| Kennedy | baritone | David Evitts |
| 1st Cop | baritone | David Evitts |
| 2nd Cop | bass-baritone | Stephen Morton |
| Frank Chambers | David Parsons | |
| Sackett | bass | Daniel Sullivan |
The story is of a drifter, Frank, who stops at a rural diner for a meal and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a young, beautiful woman, Cora, and her much older husband, Nick. Frank and Cora have an affair. Cora and Frank scheme to murder Nick to start a new life together without her losing the diner. Their first attempt at the murder is a failure, but they eventually succeed.