The Creative Journey Behind a New Operatic Roman Fever
An Operatic Reimagining of Roman Fever
About this Event
The Mount and Grace Church Celebrate Edith Wharton with a one-night-only event.
From Story to Score: The Creative Journey Behind a New Operatic Roman Fever
(New York, NY) April 9, 2026 — In a landmark collaboration, The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home and Grace Church will celebrate the life and legacy of Edith Wharton in the very place of her baptism on Easter Day in 1862. The special evening, held Thursday, April 9 at 6:00 pm at Grace Church (802 Broadway), features selections from an exhilarating new operatic adaptation of Wharton’s iconic short story Roman Fever, composed by Louis Karchin with a libretto by Joan Ross Sorkin.
Transforming Wharton’s razor-sharp drama of friendship, jealousy, and betrayal into powerful operatic theater, the work brings the story’s simmering tensions and dark secrets vividly to life. The event offers audiences a rare behind-the-scenes experience, blending performance highlights with an intimate conversation about the creative process of adapting literature for the stage.
Soprano Kaileigh Ries performs the role of Grace Ansley, alongside soprano Sofia Scattarreggia as Alida Slade, with pianist Luke Poeppel providing musical direction. Interwoven with the music, Karchin and Sorkin will lead an ongoing talkback, sharing insights into the artistic challenges and revelations of translating one of Wharton’s most celebrated stories into opera.
The evening invites audiences to encounter Wharton’s enduring voice anew—through music, song, and conversation—in the city where her story began.
This event is free and open to the public, registration recommended. Please join us for a wine and cheese reception following the performance. Strand Books will be onsite offering a selection of Edith Wharton's books for sale.
Event Details
Thursday, April 9, 6:00 pm
Grace Church
802 Broadway, New York City
Free admission | Registration required
For tickets and information, visit EdithWharton.org.
The music of Louis Karchin (b. 1951, Philadelphia) has been heard throughout the world and has garnered praise for its “fearless eloquence” (The New Yorker), “bare-nerve intensity” (NY Times), and “coruscating beauty” (San Francisco Chronicle). Among his more than one hundred compositions are three operas and numerous works for chamber and solo combinations. Eleven portrait CDs are on Naxos, Bridge, New World, and New Focus labels, and recognition has come from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (three awards) and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. In 2000, he was one of 53 composers chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to represent New York City at the turn of the Millennium, and in 2022, the Eastman School of Music, his undergraduate alma mater, awarded him a Centennial Medal for lifetime achievement in music. Mr. Karchin was twice a Leonard Bernstein Fellow in Composition at Tanglewood, where he was invited to return in 2011 to conduct his Chamber Symphony in Ozawa Hall. He is Professor of Music at New York University.
Joan Ross Sorkin (Librettist): Opera: Strange Fruit: NYCity Opera (VOX), Long Leaf Opera (Premiere), Harlem School of the Arts/NYCity Opera (Concert), and materials archived at Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture; The Reef: Berkshire Opera Festival (Concert, Merkin Hall), Guest Speaker, The Mount (“Wharton Revisited” Summer Lecture Series and Edith Wharton Book Club), Pellicciotti Prize Finalist, Center for Contemporary Opera (Libretto readings); White Witch: Symphony Space (Premiere), Salem State U., Roulette (Concert); Jubilee: Commissioned by JSU, upcoming concerts (Yale and JSU); Paradise Bound (in dev.). Musicals: Black Swan Blues, Bordello, Monet, In The Theatre, The Real McCoy, Dandelion (licensed by Dramatic Publishing), award-winning Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell, and Go Green! Favorite Play: (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story (Drama Desk nom., Capathia Jenkins). Member: Opera America (Grant Adjudicator), Dramatists Guild (Opera Committee), BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, ASCAP, Bd., Past Pres. and 2025 Founders’ Awardee, York Theatre Co. www.joanrosssorkin.com
Soprano Kaileigh Riess is a dynamic performer dedicated to bringing fierce authenticity, lyrical beauty, and vivid expressivity to operatic, crossover, and contemporary repertoire. Favorite stage credits include include Nannetta (Falstaff), Violetta (La traviata), Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Laurie (The Tender Land), and Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites). Kaileigh completed her education at Northwestern, USC, and the BU Opera Institute and has since worked with Boston Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Central City Opera, Pacific Northwest Opera, Opera in the Pines, Beth Morrison Projects, and the Boston Pops. She was most recently seen in the Prototype Festival in What to Wear at BAM and in BMP: Songbook at National Sawdust, and she returns to the Glimmerglass Festival this summer to sing Miss Lightfoot and cover Mary Johnson in Fellow Travelers. Kaileigh is based in New York and represented by Encompass Arts.
Lauded for their “crystal-clear high register” (Opera Today) and commanding interpretations, Italian-American soprano Sofia Scattarreggia is making an impact both on and off the stage. They have appeared in a wide range of soprano roles, including Blanche in Dialogues des Carmelites, Florencia in Florencia en el Amazonas (Catán), among others. Most recently, Dr. Scattarreggia covered the roles of Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and made debut with Annapolis Opera as Donna Anna in their fall production of Don Giovanni. Dr. Scattarreggia regularly performs challenging modern and post-tonal chamber and large-scale compositions. Upcoming projects include premiering Susan Kander’s opera Cary My Own Suitcase with Buffalo Opera Unlimited, and workshopping Tobias Picker’s new opera Safe Haven with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. They have with other acclaimed, active composers such as Sheila Silver, John Musto, and Libby Larsen. They are thrilled to be participating in the premiere of Louis Karchin’s Roman Feverinterpreting the role of Alida Slade.
American German conductor and pianist Luke Poeppel is the Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and a 2025 winner of a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award. He recently served as the Associate Conductor for Cerrone & Fleischmann’s opera In a Grove at the 2025 Prototype Festival, stepping in to conduct the full run of performances. In Summer 2025, Poeppel conducted In a Grove with Opera Saratoga and also served as the Assistant Conductor for Tosca and Sunday in the Park with George at the Glimmerglass Festival; he returns to Glimmerglass in 2026 for Fellow Travelers and Madama Butterfly. In the 25/26 season, beyond his duties in Kansas City, he debuts with the Grossman Ensemble and assists for Andrea Chénier at OperaDelaware. Poeppel has served as a cover conductor for orchestras and ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Juilliard Opera.
About Grace Church
Founded in 1808 and occupying its present landmark building at the corner of Broadway and 10th Street since 1846, Grace Church has been one of New York’s preeminent cultural institutions for more than two centuries. Founded as an offshoot of Trinity Church Wall Street by Hamiltons, Astors, Schermerhorns, and many other old New York families, Grace has enjoyed a storied position within the cultural history of New York beginning with its origins in the early decades of the American Republic, through its social preeminence during the Gilded Age, and continuing today as a vibrant, active, and inclusive community of faith.
About The Mount
The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home is a National Historic Landmark and cultural center dedicated to the intellectual, artistic, and humanitarian legacy of Edith Wharton (1862-1937), one of America’s greatest authors. Wharton wrote over 40 books in 40 years, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Age of Innocence.
The Mount presents Wharton’s life and achievements through tours of her house and gardens, along with thematic tours of her library, and a popular ghost tour. The Mount is the literary hub of the Berkshires and hosts lectures by national authors and scholars, panels, and an annual writers-in-residency. The Mount’s grounds, including the gardens and trails, are open free to the public year-round from dawn to dusk.
The Mount is a proud partner of the Lenox Cultural District, one of five designated districts in Berkshire County. We are located at 2 Plunkett Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. For more information, visit EdithWharton.org.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Grace Church, 802 Broadway, New York, United States
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