CLASSICAL20.COM

The composer Nico Muhly and the playwright Craig Lucas have crossed the finish line first.

Their opera, based on a real Internet murder plot, will be the first to be staged under a joint commissioning program by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater, the Met said on Friday.

Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, has said that the idea behind the project, which began when he took over the Met in 2006, is to develop new repertory and give the compositions the benefit of improving through a workshop process, more of a Broadway method.

The work will make its debut in June 2011 at the English National Opera, which will share in the production’s cost with the Met. It will come to the Met for the 2013-14 season. It will be the fourth time that the Met and the English National Opera have co-produced a show since Mr. Gelb took over, in a system that has essentially turned London into an out-of-town tryout locale for the Met.

Read the full article in The New York Times here.