JFK (opera)

JFK is an opera in two acts by American composer David T. Little, with an English-language libretto by Royce Vavrek. The opera's story is based on the final night of American president John F. Kennedy's life that was spent in at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, prior to his assassination in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

The opera was commissioned by Fort Worth Opera, Opéra de Montréal and American Lyric Theater, and received its premiere at Fort Worth Opera on April 23, 2016 in a production directed by Thaddeus Strassberger.

Many critics wrote about a disorienting dream that Jackie experiences involving the historical figures Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone. In his preview for the New York Times, David Allen explained that the opera "layers time most obviously in two “characters in triplicate,” as Mr. Little puts it. Superficially, they are Henry and Clara, a secret service agent and a maid. In another guise, they inhabit Greek mythology as Lachesis and Clotho, the fates who spin and measure the thread of life. In still a third, they are a couple who attended Ford’s Theater with Abraham Lincoln: Henry, who was stabbed by John Wilkes Booth, was later driven mad and killed Clara while attacking their children."

The world premiere received positive reviews, including a rave from Henry Stewart in Opera News who called the work a "ravishing grand opera," "a triumphant work," and suggested that "JFK isn’t history or even biography—it’s a love story, a very sad one about growing old but not getting to grow old enough."

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