Opera Tampa is presenting the world premiere of a macabre English-language chamber opera by a composer who lives in St. Petersburg. It’s called “Love v. Death.”
Tom Sivak wrote the words and music. His background is in musical theater.
“I received a grant from Creative Pinellas and self-produced a one act opera called 'Love v. Death,' and it told the story of Carl von Cosel, who was a Florida resident. And the story… was unbelievable, and it just struck me. It had operatic, epic highs and lows. It seemed perfectly suited for an opera,” Sivak said.
That was in 2018. Melissa Misener sang in that production and remembered it when she became Opera Tampa’s resident stage director.
“She approached me about writing a second act to make it a full-length opera. And…it took me a couple of years, but I finished it, and that's how I got here,” Sivak said.
Act one features a true story with a Key West connection. It’s about X-ray technician Cosel’s obsession with a woman named Elena Hoyo. And that doesn’t end when Hoyo dies of tuberculosis.
“Love wins in in that case. Carl, the fact that the love of his life died, made no difference. The story is so unbelievable …I had to inform the audience. I didn't make this up,” Sivak said.
When Hoyo’s family ultimately found out that Carl had removed Elena’s body from her crypt, and was living with it in his house, he told police that she sang to him from the grave, asking him to do it.
But Sivak said the public response when this was found out in 1940 wasn’t what you might expect.
“I mean, a story like that went like wildfire across the nation. And amazingly, op-eds and radio commentaries and general public opinion was he just loved her a lot. He's just a hopeless romantic,” Sivak said.
Sivak employed dark humor to tell the story. And said he got a lot of help from Cosel's own words.
“I think what really drew me to it was his diary. I found out about the story from a friend of mine over breakfast. He said, ‘Hey, have you ever heard about this guy, Carl von Cosel?’ And he's telling me the story, and I'm really this happened? And so I googled it, and it happened, and I found his diary, and I read his diary, and to get inside his mind like that was just, I couldn't let go of it. So that's, that's where I came from,” Sivak said.
Opera Tampa presents “Love v. Death” Nov. 1 through Nov. 2 at the Straz Center. Artistic Director Robin Andrew Stamper will conduct.
You can get more information on the Straz Center's website.
