Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women began life here in Washington, as a subject suggested to the composer by Elaine Walter, artistic director of Summer Opera Theater Company, when Adamo was still in Washington. For various reasons, Adamo withdrew the opera from the little company, in favor of a later premiere in 1998, at Houston Grand Opera. This was a wise decision, because the greater media exposure from the larger company undoubtedly played some part in the opera’s astounding success. Little Women has received some forty productions since its premiere, an impressive number for a modern opera in less than a decade.

One part of the work’s appeal can be credited to the popularity of the story, adapted from the Louisa May Alcott novel, read by just about every bibliophilic young person raised in the United States. The rest is due to Adamo’s neo-Romantic compositional style, equal parts Hollywood film score and Sondheim musical (see my review of his new harp concerto from last week), with easily digestible dashes of dissonant spices here and there. The lengthy introduction on Saturday night by the production’s director, David Grindle, nervously beseeching the audience to give their ears a chance to get used to this challenging modern opera, was utterly unnecessary. It says something about the company’s conservative audience, and one hopes that Summer Opera is not punished financially too much for programming something even a little different. Adamo’s style is not as saccharine as The Light in the Piazza, but this is certainly not Ferneyhough or Saariaho, after all.

Adamo’s opera comes back to its birthplace in a co-production with Opera Delaware, in a frilly, decidedly unadventurous staging directed by David Grindle, with sets by Frederick M. Duer and costumes that were not created specifically for this production. If the opera looked a little precious, the music was a significant success. Having now heard the entire opera live (having heard the stunning closing ensemble a couple years ago), it is easy to see why so many companies have chosen to mount it. The libretto, adapted by the composer, is a clever repointing of the Alcott story, cutting and reshaping the essential story, while capturing the original’s nostalgic appeal. Little Women retains an essentially modern, seamless narrative flow, while Adamo does allow his score to break into several recognizable operatic conventions.