-
OUR TOWN
Featured Objects 
Our Town. Autograph short score, 2004.
Our Town. Autograph short score, 2004.
Ned Rorem. Ned Rorem Collection,
Music Division, Library of Congress.
© Copyright Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.
Digital ID #mc0079
Our Town. Autograph short score, 2004.
Many composers wanted to turn Our Town into an opera, but Thornton Wilder refused them all—including Aaron Copland, who wrote the film score for the 1940 movie version. In 2001, Wilder’s nephew and literary executor, Tappan Wilder, granted permission for the first operatic rendition of Our Town. Premiered in 2006 by the Indiana University Opera Theater, Our Town, the opera, features a libretto by J. D. McClatchy and a score by Ned Rorem—both MacDowell Colony Fellows.
