d the time it takes to read a novel. The list of names that appeared on the screen was a long one, as you can imagine, but at the top was Ernest Hemingway. Of course I had heard of Hemingway before, Id even read The Old Man and the Sea in junior high, but I had never read the bulwark of his work. So I placed an order for the first few books listed under his name, and thanks to the magic of the internet and the postal service, I had the books two to four weeks later. After rehashing the tale of the old mans fish and reading a pamphlet on the impending doom of the world that a raving derelict had given me earlier that day, I read a fantastic bit of fantasy titled, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Whether it was the superb writing of Hemingway or the eight vodka tonics that inspired me Ill never know, but when I had finished reading that short story it was like my hands had a mind of their own. My fingers seemed to act of their own volition as I sat and typed, but this was not to be another novel but an opera! Yes, I decided I would write an opera, truly embrace the cerebral cadre to which I now found myself a part, and find my destiny as a genuine Renaissance man. A man equally at home in all the genres of the arts and humanities. The only thing standing betwixt myself and the greatest opera of the modern age was my complete lack of musical talent. I have not to this day mastered an instrument, nor have I ever attempted a serious study of music in general, but as Im not one to turn my back on Inspiration when she calls, I went ahead with the project. The first, and may I add easiest part of composing an opera is to write the libretto, which is a kind of simplified version of the story that accommodates the time consuming singing thats pervasive in most opera. Its a known fact that people are willing to sit in one place for only a short amount of time, approximetly three hours. Thus, to accommodate the audiences bladders and to pa...
