“It’s really interesting because a lot of the story has characters in distress when the doll comes into their environment and changes everything,” she said. They have to band together to make sure everybody is OK,” Cordes said. “It shows how long there’s been a community of understanding and mutual help. The small, tight-knit community lives in a hard, unforgiving environment on the shore of Lake Superior in the early 1900s.Ĭordes looked at the storyline of Marthe, the sailors, the Wife and the Keeper, where the women relaxed societal rules for something as simple as providing coffee for the sailors. It consists of a few sailors and the people at the lighthouse: the Keeper, the Wife, their young daughter Mary Clara and the housekeeper Marthe. While the pull of this story is the paranormal part, Marya Spring Cordes, the director of this project, has also focused on the human aspect of the tale. That is when the story gets really Gothic and supernatural. The lighthouse keeper rescues a shipwrecked survivor, who gives the doll to Mary Clara, a young girl. This opera is filled with suspense, mystery and strange things, including a doll named Sweet Louisa.

Kring and Rob Hartmann, the librettist, have worked together on this project and many others. The characters of this opera have to deal not just with the harsh climate of Lake Superior, but also the sadness of isolation.

Ozarks lyric opera