Vera of Las Vegas

Vera of Las Vegas is an opera by Daron Hagen with a libretto by Paul Muldoon based on a treatment co-written with the composer. The Center for Contemporary Opera gave the staged premiere on 25 June 2003 at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre of Symphony Space in New York City.

Hagen and Muldoon, after the 1993 success of their first opera Shining Brow, determined to create a three-act opera called Grand Concourse. Although the opera Vera of Las Vegas is published separately and may be performed as a freestanding work, the three-act opera is still considered a "work in progress" by the authors. The first act (in 2010 still awaiting adaptation by Hagen) was to be based on Muldoon’s preexisting play (originally commissioned and produced by McCarter Theatre, Princeton) Six Honest Serving Men. The second act was to be Vera of Las Vegas, with a co-written treatment by Muldoon and Hagen based on characters introduced in the first act. Hagen and Muldoon co-wrote a detailed treatment for Grand Concourse. The final act was set to take place on 9-11. In 2010, it awaits a libretto by Muldoon and musical completion by Hagen.

The University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Music (as a showcase for its faculty and opera program) commissioned Vera of Las Vegas in 1995. Since the work was to be the centerpiece of a trilogy, Hagen elected to make a live recording rather than authorize a staged premiere. It was recorded to 24 tracks in March 1996 at the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall in Las Vegas. Hagen, at the Bard College Electronic Music Studio in April–May 1996, oversaw postproduction mixing, editing and recording of extensive overdubs, performing many of them. After final mastering in New York in June 2003, the opera gained the distinction of being the final release of Composers Recordings, Inc. As such, it received no publicity, was not shipped to stores, and was not reviewed. Nevertheless, the first pressing sold out within nine months, partly due to the fact that Carl Fischer, the publisher of the music, included the recording as part of the published vocal score. Although available as part of the Database of Recorded American Music and as a "print-to-order" item in the New World Records catalogue, physical copies of the actual release are extremely rare.

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