SYNOPSIS - 
Based on the beloved 1922 novel The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, the story and lively musical score reflect its setting in post-Victorian London and in Portofino, Italy – the Jazz Age and the 1920s – romantic, lyrical, jazzy.

1. 
   It’s 1922. A cold, rainy, post-war-London February. In the London Times, a small classified ad appears:
   

2. “To those who appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine: To let for the month of April
   - a medieval castle on the Italian mediterranean shore.”
   

3. 
   Life and love are about to bloom for four discontented London ladies: Rose, married to a self-centered novelist of pulp historical fiction; Lottie, married to a cold, parsimonious, business-minded solicitor; Lady Caroline, a jaded debutante, looking for the meaning of it all; and Mrs. Fisher, a widow, living in her Victorian memories.  These four ladies find each other - and the castle of their dreams for one magical month in San Salvatore. The ladies expect only a pleasant holiday away from their London cares, but what they find awakens them to a world of passionate feeling and the joy of living.
   

4. Now if only the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers - who are about to descend on their ladies’ heavenly retreat.  Only then will the enchantments of April in Italy be complete! 
   
   

The Enchanted April, the 1922 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, has previously been the subject of two successful films and a stage play. For Evans and Leipart, the characters who inhabit the world of this brilliant story – their hopes, their individual stories, their interactions, their discoveries, and the immense sensuality of the Italian locale that transforms them – all demand expression as a Lyrical New Musical!

CHARLES LEIPART  
- LYRICIST, BOOKWRITER   

RICHARD B. EVANS
- COMPOSER

ENCHANTED APRIL was commissioned by West Bay Opera, the highly respected opera company based in Palo Alto, California, with General Director Maestro José Luis Moscovich. WBO <http://wbopera.org> is the second oldest opera company in the western United States.