# An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (opera)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a one-act radio opera composed by Scottish-born American composer Thea Musgrave. Musgrave also wrote the libretto, basing it on the 1890 short story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce. The opera, commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation, premiered on BBC Radio 3 in 1982. The first stage performance was in 1988.
Musgrave, who has lived in the United States since 1972, said she would not have been able to write the opera without having lived in the American South and gotten a feel for its language. Musgrave dedicated the opera to her husband, Peter Mark, who was artistic director of the Virginia Opera for thirty-five years.
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera said Occurrence was "a true radio opera, evolving its own narrative modes and taking imaginative account of the limitations and potentialities of the medium." Brian Morton said of the staged production "Musgrave's scoring for baritone, speakers, tape, and orchestra is as daring a use for voice in Britain this century and the equal of anything done by Benjamin Britten."

## Synopsis

Setting: Alabama, 1860s during the Civil War.
Peyton Farquhar (baritone) is a Southern plantation owner in Alabama, then part of the Confederate States of America. Farquhar is to be hanged by the Union army for trying to burn a railroad bridge. As he is dropped, the rope breaks, he escapes, and Farquhar returns home. The last line of the opera reveals, as does Bierce's story, that the escape was a fantasy and Farquhar died on the gallows.
Farquhar is the only singing part, the narrator speaks rather than sings.

## Performances

Musgrave conducted the London Sinfonietta in the premiere on BBC Radio 3. The broadcast, on September 14, 1982, featured Jake Gardner as Farquhar and Gayle Hunnicutt as the narrator. (Gardner had created the role of James Stewart in the original production of Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots in 1977.) David Healy and Ed Bishop also had speaking parts. The original production included a pre-recorded track of nature sounds. The broadcast was released on compact disc by NMC Recordings in 2011.
The review in Gramophone said Occurrence "sounds like a 12-tone revival of Bonanza being interpreted by the cast and crew of The Archers" and "much of Musgrave’s music is 'incidental' in the worst possible sense: chords have no function other than as scene-setting prompts; dialogue is underpinned with pointless ostinatos. And that no one shows much awareness of how ridiculous the caricatured American accents sound, or what a twee and hollow response this is to Bierce’s text, is unforgivable." MusicWeb International's review said "the sung passages of this remarkable work achieve real lyricism, expressiveness and a most moving intensity" and Gardner "is transformed, both by the music and by his own remarkable talent, into an eloquent, passionate man whose character we can believe in and whose story moves and inspires us."
The first staged production was on June 23, 1988, at South Hill Park, Bracknell, Berkshire, during the Wilde Festival of Music. The opera was presented on a double bill with William Walton's The Bear. George Badacsonyi conducted the production by his Thameside Opera and Dominic Barber directed. Brian Rayner Cook played Farquhar and Sarah Connolly was his wife. The recorded nature sounds were omitted from this production. The same year, the Cheltenham Music Festival also presented Thameside Opera's production, again with Cook as Farquhar.
The American premiere in an unstaged performance was January 18, 1986, by the College-Conservatory of Music Wind Symphony at the University of Cincinnati. The first staged American performance was December 1, 2001, in New York City, presented by Operaworks.

## Roles

Roles, voice types, BBC premiere, Wilde Festival :
| Role | Voice type | BBC premiere, 1982 Conductor: Thea Musgrave | Wilde Festival, 1988 Conductor: George Badacsonyi |
| Peyton Farquhar | baritone | Jake Gardner | Brian Rayner Cook |
| Narrator (Farquhar's wife) | spoken | Gayle Hunnicutt | Sarah Connolly |