Peabody Novelist E.M. Forster imbued his character Caroline Abbott with these thoughts as she contemplates taking a child from Monteriano, his Italian birthplace, to bring him to the sedate English town of Sawston. Such feelings lie at the heart of the Peabody production of Forster's novel Where Angels Fear to Tread , a three-act opera that will have its world premiere on Feb. 25 in Friedberg Hall.
Angels is a tale about the clash of cultures and the human experience.
Set in the hills of Tuscany, Italy, the story revolves around a prim and proper middle-class English family and its brief stay in the fictional town of Monteriano. It is here that the passions and emotions of Italy come head to head with the characters' British sensibility. As a consequence, public policy-makers and practitioners from the business and financial communities must be able to work constructively across a broad spectrum of complex, often contentious activities. Leeds has made a career out of helping governments and businesses do just that. At the same time, he has served as a SAIS adjunct faculty member for almost 20 years, teaching courses dealing with financial markets, privatization and cross-border financial transactions.