Damien Sneed tapped musical history by adapting Scott Joplin’s work for Opera Theatre

Scott Joplin earned the nickname king of ragtime in large part from musical innovations he made while living and working in St. Louis in the early 20th century. His heavily syncopated compositions, known as rags, paved the way for much American music to come.

His work in the field of opera is lesser known. Joplin’s first opera is lost to history. He never quite finished another, “Treemonisha,” and it wasn’t fully staged during his lifetime. A 1972 production brought the opera to a wider audience, and the piece won Joplin a posthumous Pulitzer Prize a few years later.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents a world premiere adaptation of “Treemonisha” through Sunday. Composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton crafted new opening and closing acts, adding Joplin as a character and turning “Treemonisha” into an opera-within-an-opera.

In this telling, Joplin’s Reconstruction-era story becomes not only a depiction of a prospering Black community near the border of Texas and Arkansas, but also the story of a composer triumphing artistically.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy D. Goodwin spoke with Sneed about his adaptation and Joplin’s importance as a composer.