From Page to Stage
The Great American Novel.
The Oscar-Winning Film.
Now, The Opera.
The story you know, as you’ve never experienced it before. With a gospel-infused score and a libretto that crackles with dark humor, the opera brings Lewis’s outrageous characters to life — bigger, louder, and funnier than ever.
A Story Across Centuries
From Page to Screen to Stage
The Novel
Sinclair Lewis publishes Elmer Gantry — banned in Boston, best-seller everywhere else. Lewis would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Film
Burt Lancaster delivers an iconic, Oscar-winning performance as the charismatic preacher in Richard Brooks’s acclaimed film adaptation.
The Opera Premieres
Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s opera Elmer Gantry receives its world premiere at Nashville Opera, bringing the story to the operatic stage for the first time.
The Recording
Florentine Opera in Milwaukee mounts a subsequent production, which is recorded for the Naxos label. The recording goes on to win the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
Tulsa Revival
Tulsa Opera presents a revival of the production, introducing Elmer Gantry to new audiences in Oklahoma.
Return to Milwaukee
Florentine Opera revives the production, bringing the opera back to the company where the Grammy-winning recording was made.
Opera Santa Barbara
The Grammy-winning opera comes to Santa Barbara — two nights only at the historic Lobero Theatre.
Why This Story Endures
Sinclair Lewis wrote Elmer Gantry in 1927 and it became the best-selling novel of the year — banned in Boston, denounced from pulpits, and impossible to put down. Lewis’s weapon was laughter, and it cut deep. The novel helped earn him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, the first American to receive the honor.
When Burt Lancaster brought Gantry to the screen in 1960, he created one of cinema’s most indelible characters — a performance of such magnetic force that it won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film remains a touchstone of American cinema.
Now, the opera adds a new dimension to this story. Music gives voice to what words and images alone cannot — the fervor of a revival meeting, the intimacy of doubt, the absurdity of a con man who starts believing his own act. Elmer Gantry is a great story told with wit and nerve.
Meet Elmer Gantry
Two Revivals Only
Friday, May 1, 2026 — 7:30 PM
Sunday, May 3, 2026 — 2:30 PM
Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara
lobero.org · 805.963.0761