The story revolves around the widow of a composer who agrees to let a young composer complete her dead husband's final work, but then discovers that a friend was her husband's lover and the inspiration for the opera.
Pasatieri wrote 17 operas in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, before moving to Los Angeles to write and orchestrate film music, and has also written choral works and chamber music. His best-known opera is The Seagull, which premiered at Houston Grand Opera‹staged by Corsaro‹in 1974 and has been revived several times. From 1980-84, he was artistic director at Atlanta Opera.
Corsaro, a member of the faculty of the Juilliard School, has directed at New York City Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and elsewhere. He wrote the librettos for Pasatieri's one-act opera Before Breakfast and for Stephen Paulus's Heloise and Abelard, which premiered at Julliard in 2002.