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Bill Clinton's life turned into opera

From small-town boy to leader of the free world, disgraced US president to rehabilitated elder statesman, the life of Bill Clinton has been one of dramatic turns.

An opera about him is being performed in the state where in 1946 he was born, as he once said, "in a place called Hope".

Yet 'Billy Blythe' eschews the melodramatic tumult of the late 1990s, when Mr Clinton faced public and political humiliation over his affair with Monica Lewinksy, a White House intern.

It is set in Hot Springs, where he grew up, on a single day in 1959, the last year he used the surname of his late father, William Blythe, before taking that of his stepfather, Roger Clinton.

The opera features music composed by Bonnie Montgomery and a libretto by Brittany Barber, both 31-year-old Arkansas natives. It recently premiered at Little Rock's Women's City Club, in front of a 60-strong audience, to warm reviews....

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)