Dinner at Eight

Libretto by Mark Campbell (1953–) (Silent Night, 2014)

Based on the play Dinner at Eight by George S. Kaufman

First performance Minnesota Opera, 11 March 2017

Set in Depression-era Manhattan, the Kaufman–Ferber play revolves around an ill-fated dinner organized by Millicent Jordan, a society hostess labelled “vapid” by the playwrights themselves. In the week preceding the party, Millicent’s husband, Oliver, is diagnosed with a fatal heart disorder and discovers that his struggling shipping line has become the object of a hostile takeover; their daughter Paula’s lover (dissipated matinée idol Larry Renault, also an invitee) stages a theatrical suicide; the guests of honor, an English lord and lady, blow off the engagement and decamp for Florida; and the cook’s pièce de résistance, a much-hyperbolized lobster in aspic, comes crashing to the kitchen floor… In adapting the witty and biting depression-era play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Pulitzer- Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer William Bolcom (A view from the Bridge, A Wedding ), and renowned librettist Mark Campbell (Silent Night, The Shining, Elizabeth Cree) have created a winning new work that successfully weds American musical comedy and opera.

A co-production with Minnesota Opera and Atlanta Opera