A scene from Allison McIntosh’s opera, “The Murderess”
McIntosh's recent video game display at the Gardner Library
The true-crime thriller centers on Jane “Jolly Jane” Toppan, an amiable nurse-turned-serial killer in 19th-century Boston.
But as an opera, you won’t find “The Murderess” on the shelves of the Johnson County Library However, you can find the composer, Allison McIntosh, working as an information specialist at the Gardner Library.
McIntosh collaborated with librettist/playwright Trip Venturella. The Landlocked Opera staged two performances of “The Murderess” in July at the Simpson House in Kansas City, Missouri.
A three-story mansion built in 1909, the Simpson House was a perfect setting for the opera. Audiences followed the action as it shifted from the large front room, then to a foyer by the staircase and back to the front room.
“The audience seemed really receptive to it,” McIntosh said. “They seemed to enjoy it, so I'm really happy with how it went.”
McIntosh, 29, has had her music performed around the country, including by the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra in Grand Teton National Park and Washington Masters Chorale in Washington, D.C. But “The Murderess” is her first opera, which she wrote for her dissertation while earning a musical arts doctorate from the University of Kansas. She met Venteruella in Lawrence.
Building an opera around Toppan, whom one author described as the “most prolific fiend” in an era of “vicious female sociopaths,” was not as far-fetched as it might appear, McIntosh said. The idea emerged from brainstorming with friends who were true-crime aficionados.
“Opera is often about larger-than-life characters, and of course, opera is extremely dramatic typically,” McIntosh said. “So anything that can create high drama can be a good subject for an opera.”
Similarly, McIntosh said, a composer is not an odd fit for an information specialist — especially for one like McIntosh, who also teaches remote music composition classes for Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri.
“Music has taught me to be creative, and that comes up a lot at the Library, whether it's making displays, or creative problem solving with patrons,” she said.
McIntosh also utilizes her teaching skills by working with staff as part of the Library’s reader advisory classes and gets the opportunity to “scratch the research itch” when patrons have complicated questions.
She had a terrific experience recently when a display she built using old video games captivated a young visitor to the Gardner Library, who was thrilled to meet the creator when McIntosh happened to be working the desk. The boy showed McIntosh his Pokémon collection and seemed ready to talk with her about video games for the rest of the day.
McIntosh wants to keep her hand in opera and would like to write her own at some point to continue telling women’s stories that, she said, are underrepresented in opera.
As a native of Idaho, and as someone who did a lot of her college work in Boston, McIntosh was not necessarily looking to stay in the Midwest upon completing her doctorate. McIntosh would love to someday be a professor of composition and music theory at a small liberal arts college.
She’s now almost two years into her role at the Library, and she enjoys the tight-knit staff and community in Gardner. “It’s just a really happy place to work,” she said.