No question, Arizona Opera's 'Susannah' faithful to tragic tale: South's language imbues drama about intolerance.(Opera review)

Byline: Cathalena E. Burch

May 1--At the end of Act II, as Susannah closes the door behind her and leaves Little Bat a sobbing mess on the stage, you are left to ponder composer Carlisle Floyd's overriding theme: Would you right a wrong if you had the chance?

It's a question that begs an answer, one that Floyd himself never fully concludes in his 2-hour, 10-minute truly American folk opera "Susannah," which Arizona Opera mounted at Tucson Music Hall last weekend.

Floyd's story follows the Apocryphal book of Susannah but sets it in rural Tennessee in the 1950s to the tune of mountain folk music cast in an orchestral setting. The teenage heroine …