Holy Ghosts poster

By Tracey Cusick

Holy Ghosts, a rock opera written by Fenway resident Larry Bell, will premiere at the Berklee Performance Center on September 15 at 8:15 p.m. Already in the repertoire as a play, Romulus Linney’s Holy Ghosts deals with an extreme (and accurately portrayed) form of religious worship in the rural American South. Hymn tunes populate the score, while congregants “testify” to their life experiences and religious faith—and test their faith by handling poisonous snakes in a climactic salvation scene.

In addition to having its world premier in the Fenway, Holy Ghosts was also composed in the neighborhood. A composer and pianist, Larry Bell lives in the East Fens with his wife, musicologist Andrea Olmstead (who is Holy Ghosts’s executive producer and co-librettist with Romulus Linney). Bell arrived in the neighborhood in 1980 after earning masters and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School in New York City.

Bell also works in the Fenway: He is a music professor who appreciates what the neighborhood has to offer. “I have found the relaxed diversity of The Fenway conducive to creative work and practicing the piano for concert and recording dates,” he says. “I like living in this neighborhood because of its proximity to three music schools as well as the Symphony and Jordan Hall. So many musicians live here.”

Bell’s North Carolina upbringing inspired him. Holy Ghosts, he explains, “draws on my experience growing up in the South and contains a number of familiar hymn tunes. I even wrote my own hymn tune, ‘Unchanging Love,’ for the end of the opera. Although I’ve written about 100 classical pieces, including orchestral works, this is my first oper—-a rock opera.”

Tickets (adults $10, senior citizens $5, children $2-$5) to the show are available at the Berklee box office at 136 Mass. Ave.

Tracey Cusick lives in the East Fens.

A version of this article was published in the September 2009 Fenway News.