The Documentary

"The film is as powerful and evocative in its 
own way as the piece it reveres and celebrates."

-Broadway World-

Opera’s hallowed traditions and America’s cowboy culture converge in a documentary film that celebrates the collaborative power of art. Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera follows Zane Grey’s classic Western novel as it is re-imagined as a Grand Opera. Can the rugged American West fit in the genre of Verdi and Mozart? A challenge between the composer and his lyricist quickly expands into a creative posse of musical, visual, and digital artists as the fully orchestrated opera emerges from the page. From Arizona’s windswept desert canyons that inspired both Zane Grey and fine art painter Ed Mell, to onstage at Phoenix Symphony Hall, where scores, story, and performances are meticulously aligned, Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera captures the process of making a legend stand up and sing.

ridersopera.com

For more information on Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera, click here.  To view one of the trailers for the documentary, click here.

The documentary is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Kanopy.

Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera Riders is the inspired work of director Kristen Atwell Ford. Kristin is the in-house producer for Quantum Leap Productions (QLP), the team on Riders which won three regional Emmy Awards.  She is no stranger to these awards, having also won for "Theodore Roosevelt Dam: Arizona’s Living Legacy", “Castle Hot Springs: Oasis of Time,” and "Protecting the Source."

In 2012, Kristin produced the nine-part The Arizona Centennial Series that aired on PBS/KAET. The series welcomed notable guests to recount Arizona’s colorful political history with former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

For additional information after Ford and her work, click here.