Cold Mountain is an American opera in two acts and an epilogue, with music by Jennifer Higdon and the libretto by Gene Scheer, based on Charles Frazier's 1997 novel of the same name.
Over the period of 2009 to 2011, the creators had searched for various subjects to adapt, which led to the choice of the novel Cold Mountain.
However, complications related to securing the rights to adapt the novel, along with conflicts over financial demands and reports of clashes of working style with San Francisco Opera with respect to the creation of new operas, led to the lapsing of this commission.
In advance of the premiere, four of the five scheduled Santa Fe Opera performances sold out.
For the second production of Cold Mountain, at Opera Philadelphia, Higdon and Scheer made modest revisions.
[11] In late January 2016, Nathan Gunn withdrew from the Opera Philadelphia production because of a family medical emergency.
[1] In May 2016, Cold Mountain was the winner in the category of World Premiere at the International Opera Awards in London.
Inman, a Confederate soldier wounded at the Battle of Petersburg, decides to desert from the Confederate Army and return home to Ada Monroe, his beloved who lives at Black Cove Farm, in North Carolina.
The leader of the local Home Guard is Teague, who resorts to such practices as burying deserters alive.
On his journey home, Inman meets Solomon Veasey, whom he stops from committing murder.
Back at Black Cove Farm, Ruby finds her estranged father, Stobrod, a fiddler.
He relives the day he bid Ada farewell, when he thought that the war would last but six months.
Lucinda, a runaway slave, rifles through the pockets of the dead chain gang prisoners.
Back at Black Cove Farm, Stobrod and his traveling companion Pangle still rely upon Ruby and Ada for sustenance.
At a campfire in the woods, Teague and his men confront Stobrod and Pangle, shoot them and leave them for dead.