Elmer Gantry (opera)

Elmer Gantry is an American opera based on the 1926 novel by Sinclair Lewis of the same name. It was composed by Robert Aldridge with a libretto by Herschel Garfein. The Nashville Opera presented the world première in November 2007.

Elmer Gantry was conceived almost two decades before its première. The Boston Lyric Opera and Boston Music Theatre Project put on a workshop production of the first act in 1992. An agreement was made to move forward on a full production which Boston Lyric later dropped. John Hoomes, the artistic director of the Nashville Opera, picked up production in 2003 after previewing the opera at a new works showcase.

Elmer Gantry premiered in 2007 at the Nashville Opera, with a subsequent performance at Montclair State University in 2008. The Florentine Opera Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin produced the opera in March 2010, which was recorded and released on CD by Naxos. A third production was completed at the University of Minnesota in November 2010. The opera was performanced in March 2014 at the Tulsa Opera.

The Naxos recording of the Florentine Opera Company's March 2010 production won two 2011 Grammy Awards (see Recordings, below).

The opera opens in a tavern where Elmer Gantry, captain of the Terwillinger College and Seminary football team, is regaling his friends, including roommate Frank Shallard, with tales of sexual exploits. A young man approaches and taunts Elmer, saying that he "plays football for a sissy bible school". Elmer responds by accusing him of insulting Jesus, and sucker punches him. A chaotic fight ensues.

The next day, Elmer is called to a prayer meeting by Reverend Baines, the president of Terwillinger. He is offered a full scholarship to seminary for his supposed defense of Jesus, and is invited to convert. Elmer is distracted by Baines' beautiful daughter Lulu, who is engaged to Eddie Fislinger, the head of the campus YMCA. With persuasion from Eddie and lustful thoughts toward Lulu, Elmer decides to accept the scholarship and fakes his conversion.

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