ROME (JTA) — Israeli writer Amos Oz is in Italy working on the libretto of an opera based on his novel "The Same Sea."
The opera, with music by the Italian composer Fabio Vacchi, was commissioned by the Petruzzelli Theater in the southern Italian city of Bari, where it will premiere in 2011.
The novel, which recounts complex family relationships, is written in a cross between prose and poetry.
" ‘The Same Sea’ is Oz’s most musical, most lyrical work," Vacchi told the Milan daily Corriere della Sera this week. "I wanted to write an opera that is non-linear, that moved backward and forward in time: the novel offered me a perfect narrative structure."
Oz’s work is very popular in Italy, and many of his books have been translated into Italian. He is staying in a northern Italian seaside village writing the libretto.
