Our American Cousin was the name of the play being performed at Ford's Theatre the night John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Librettist John Shoptaw examines the assassination from the perspective of the actors who were performing the play, and the middle part of the opera is essentially a musical setting of the play, with interpolations by Lincoln and other audience members. Booth, a celebrated actor, self-consciously saw himself as the protagonist in the drama of eliminating the tyrant who had defeated his ...
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Our American Cousin was the name of the play being performed at Ford's Theatre the night John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Librettist John Shoptaw examines the assassination from the perspective of the actors who were performing the play, and the middle part of the opera is essentially a musical setting of the play, with interpolations by Lincoln and other audience members. Booth, a celebrated actor, self-consciously saw himself as the protagonist in the drama of eliminating the tyrant who had defeated his beloved Confederacy, and in socializing with the play's actors before the performance, dropped numerous hints about his intended actions. The libretto mingles the startling, fascinating details of the assassination with surrealism, such as Lincoln's posthumous appearance to the play's leading lady. In spite of the inherent theatricality of the material, the libretto is curiously inert. By devoting the core of the opera to the silly, pun-laden play that has little interest in and of...
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