Seattle Opera gets $500,000 grant

Seattle Opera has been awarded a $500,000 grant for "Amelia," a new American opera scheduled to debut in Seattle next year, the Opera announced Friday.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funding will allow "Amelia" to be produced by two other production companies following its May 2010 debut at Seattle Opera, assuring that the opera will be seen in more cities.

"Amelia," based on a story by opera director Stephen Wadsworth, follows a mother-to-be still mourning the death of her Navy pilot father, killed in Vietnam in the '60s. The story, spanning three decades, unfolds in both the U.S. and Vietnam.

"Amelia" features a score by New York composer Daron Aric Hagen, who made a special trip to Seattle this week to deliver the completed work to Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins. Poet Gardner McFall wrote the libretto. The production set design will be done by Thomas Lynch with costumes by Tony award winner Ann Hould-Ward.

Blythe Lawrence: blawrence@seattletimes.com