1.   Gomes had studied in Milan and composed operas for La Scala and other Milanese houses.

2.   He admits that he loves the atmosphere of the theater and regrets that it is probably too late for him to compose an opera himself.

3.   He has composed two operas since then, and neither was a comedy.

4.   He virtually ordered her back to her studio to compose the opera.

5.   In one recent instance, the artists helped a group of Boston fifth-graders compose an opera inspired by a Renaissance painting.

6.   It was a great relief to Donizetti when he was engaged to compose operas for Paris and then appointed composer to the court in Vienna.

7.   Composer Solomon Epstein, of Savannah, Georgia, said composing the opera was his response to the Holocaust.