Over the course of his long career, composer and conductor Anton Coppola has seen a steady rise in interest in opera in the United States.

"The picture has changed since when I first started," he said recently. "There was maybe a handful of scattered opera companies around the country other than the majors, but since then it has proliferated tremendously, and it's a very encouraging sign. It's a dramatic development."

Born in 1917, Coppola has conducted many Broadway musicals, including the world premiere productions of Lizzie Borden, Deseret and Of Mice and Men. He served as an opera consultant for nephew Francis Ford Coppola on "The Godfather Part III," and again helped him by conducting the score for the film version of "Dracula."

As a composer, Anton Coppola has written numerous works, including a symphony and various chamber pieces, and is working on an opera based on the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Coppola said he hopes American opera companies will continue to take chances with new works.

"While most of the companies have to stick to the bread-and-butter operas — for natural reasons, the box office has to reflect enough of an income for them to continue, but the only way they can is to present the so-called popular operas, so they can't be as adventurous as they like to be. As opposed to the operas of Europe, which are state-subsidized and can be more receptive to other kinds of work, but even that is changing in this country. Some of the companies in America are trying to be more adventurous. The corporate grants have been very helpful in this country."

Reaction Against Atonal Music

Coppola has had a unique opportunity to watch the changes in American classical music in his 15-year role as director of the symphony and opera departments at the Manhattan School of Music.

"You can't just look at the future of opera," he said. "If you look at the future of music, there was a time where the Schoenberg school — which was atonal, expressionistic — was what you heard. But the tendency is now a reaction against that to more tonal music. Not just in opera but also symphonically and other areas of musical composition, I believe."

Coppola says American audiences are more sophisticated about classical music than ever before. He finds that this sophistication derives from many influences, but in particular, one radio program, Texaco's weekly broadcasts of New York's Metropolitan Opera performances.

"One of the things that has had the greatest impact, I believe — this new love of opera — is definitely thanks to the Texaco radio show, which goes out and has brought the music into the rural areas of America," he said. "So many people engaged in opera today, many singers and musicians I meet, first heard or had their knowledge expanded from those Saturday broadcasts. It was a completely commercial endeavor for [Texaco], but in a way opera was sponsored like in the very beginning, by dukes and princes who encouraged opera for their own entertainment. But now it's going to the people."

Translating History Into Theater

Coppola has welcomed the challenge of composing an opera about one of America's most notorious criminal trials. His Sacco & Vanzetti tells the tale of two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were arrested and sentenced for a murder during a shoe-factory payroll robbery in 1920. Many thought they received an unfair trial because of their leftist political leanings and because they were immigrants.

"Opera creation doesn't necessarily have to apply to history," Coppola said. "The composer finds a story that appeals to him — a love story, an historical event — but he must choose as judiciously as he can. Opera is a subject that sings; it must be lyrically applicable, and I think that is the difference between those [operas] which are successful and those that aren't. ...

" ... I've tried to do this in my work and how I choose my subjects. Sacco & Vanzetti could have been a dry political diatribe, but I've tried to make it sing. The effect Sacco and Vanzetti had on society and the effect society had on them, I think, transforms into lyrical expression well. It doesn't just have to be an old-fashioned medley. It's about an emotional experience for the audience."

Coppola's Sacco & Vanzetti will receive its world premiere in March with Opera Tampa.