Nosferatu

I am the past that feeds upon the present.
I am the darkness that daylight denies.
I am the sins that you must inherit--
The final truth in a world full of lies.

Based on F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent vampire film--a classic of German Expressionist cinema--Gioia's Nosferatu creates a poetic version of the Dracula story in the form of an opera libretto. Written for the neoromantic composer Alva Henderson, the opera Nosferatu has been triumphantly showcased around the U.S. and will soon be staged in New York. Giogia's thrilling version of the vampire myth brings forth the terror of Nosferatu, "the undead," as seen through the eyes of the heroine, a gifted young woman trapped in a tragedy beyond her control.

Dana Gioia received his B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford University. He also completed an M.A. at Harvard where he studied with poets Robert Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Bishop. Gioia is the author of Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture as well as three collections of poetry, Interrogations at Noon, The Gods of Winter, and Daily Horoscope. He lives in Santa Rosa, California.