Tucson gets first look at America 250-themed opera

A new one-act opera born in Tucson hopes to shed light on that.

“Jefferson Lives!” dives into the ideas, conflicts and struggles Jefferson faced when he was drafting the document that led to the birth of the United States of America.

The nonprofit Tucson think tank Polyhymnia will present a workshop production of the opera on Thursday, Oct. 29, before the piece makes its world premiere in New York Nov. 7-8.

“Jefferson Lives!” has been in the works for more than two years after Stefanos Koroneos suggested the idea of an America 250 opera to Tucson composer Daniel Asia, the founder and director of Polyhymnia.

Asia and Koroneos’ paths crossed when the New York-based Teatro Grattacielo, where Koroneos is artistic and general director, produced the summer 2025 world premiere of Asia’s opera “The Tin Angel.”

Asia said he immediately thought of Polyhymnia’s COO James R. Harrigan, a historian and political theorist who had written a dissertation 25 years ago that looked at the dozen or so years leading up to the Declaration of Independence. Harrington’s narrative is the basis of the libretto, which Koroneos helped write.

Asia then tapped Joshua Daniel Nichols, his former University of Arizona student who is Polyhymnia’s composer-in-residence.

“He was really probably the most talented guy I'd ever come across in my career,” said Asia, who taught at the U of A for 35 years before retiring in 2024.

The one-act chamber opera tells the American story through music, historical texts and theatrical storytelling, tracing the ideas and struggles that shaped the American Revolution, going back to the Writs of Assistance that allowed the British to search and seize at will from the colonies, to Thomas Paine's “Common Sense” pamphlet that ultimately led to the colonies splitting from British rule.

Jefferson is the eyewitness to all of it. The opera explores Jefferson as a visionary and a man of contradictions, but Asia stressed that the work is nonpartisan and “takes no side in today's political arguments and campaigns.”

“It asks audiences to think — and trusts them to reach their own conclusions,” Asia said.

The Oct. 29 performance will include actor Peterson Townsend and tenor Brian Jeffers with a small ensemble led by pianist and conductor Saverio Alfieri and featuring violinist Ellen Ensey, Alexander Lipay on flute, cellist Robert Chamberlain and Melissa Frisch on clarinet. Koroneos is the director.

The performance, which runs 50 minutes, begins at 7:30 p.m. at Holsclaw Hall, 1017 N. Olive Road on the U of A campus. Tickets are $25 through ticketmaster.com.

“Jefferson Lives!” will have its world premiere Nov. 7 and 8 at The Flea Theater in New York City. It moves on to Opera Roanoke in Virginia Feb. 27, 2027, before Arizona Opera features it in its New Works Festival April 10-11 in Phoenix.