The future of American opera finds its roots in the heartland

Los Angeles Times: "It's a Friday afternoon in February at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. A chorus of shocked gasps erupts. A woman with a Brooklyn accent sarcastically shrieks that the airline might as well rent her an apartment in the desert. With a pool! I'm changing planes, en route from St. Paul, Minn., to San Francisco, both cities offering opera premieres. And this diva scene is a not-uncommon prologue to the brave new world of new American opera, because if you want to find out what is happening, you have to take to the skies."