RIDERS of the PURPLE SAGE: THE MAKING OF A WESTERN OPERA follows classically-trained composer, Craig Bohmler, as he mounts Zane Grey’s frontier novel for the operatic stage. The composer and the librettist, along with a team of designers, musicians, singers, and painter Ed Mell, translate America's cowboy culture and sprawling beauty of the West ​into the realm of Puccini and Verdi.