Revisiting an old question

For this post I would like to discuss the question posed by Alyssa in class the other day. She re-asked the question of what constitutes an American opera? In the case of the Aspern Papers, we see an American composer setting a novel by an writer who is really an amalgamation of both American and English properties and the setting of the book is definitely not set in an American atmosphere. So quite justly the question is asked, can this still be considered American? We posed the same question at the beginning of the semester and many of the answers were things such as American opera includes more indigenous or folk-like elements, deals with such ideas as Manifest Destiny etc. But I would argue that American opera has to include many other elements that would not necessarily be defined as American. I would also have to say that the idea of America of the 80's and 90's (is it safe to say we all grew up around this time?) is much different from the idea of America that is evolving. It is an America that is rejecting nationalistic notions and embracing a more global perspective. Certainly we've seen foreign subjects set by composers already in this class. John Adams recently composed an opera called The Flowering Tree sets an Indian folk story. Of course, Adams notes that even though a composer may take considerable effort not to impose their own musical idioms reaped from his or her own culture upon a subject from a different perspective, those influences are inevitably going to sneak in. Really, in the end the one qualification for American opera must be that the composer is primarily American or has had significant exposure to American culture.