Carlisle Floyd

Carlisle Sessions Floyd was an American composer primarily known for his operas. These stage works, for which he wrote not only the music but also the librettos, typically engage with themes from the American South, particularly the Post-civil war South, the Great Depression and rural life. His best known opera, Susannah, is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary rural Tennessee, and written for a Southern dialect. It was premiered at Florida State University in 1955, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. When it was staged at the New York City Opera the following year, the reception was initially mixed; some considered it a masterpiece, while others degraded it as a 'folk opera'. Subsequent performances led to an increase in Susannah's reputation and the opera quickly became among the most performed of American operas.

11 June 1926

Born on the same birth day (11 June): Alexander Peacock • Eldar Rønning • Fragiskos Alvertis • Gavin Hill • Gioia Bruno • Hugh Laurie • Jean Alesi • Jesús Fernández (footballer, born 1988) • Joshua Jackson • Kim Gallagher • Kodak Black • Mano Menezes • Ram Prasad Bismil • Richard Todd • Tim Hoogland • Tim Sainsbury • William Louis Marshall • Yasunari Kawabata • Yekaterina Podkopayeva

Born in the same month (June 1926): Annette Mbaye d'Erneville • Arnaldo Pomodoro • Dinu Zamfirescu • Efraín Ríos Montt • Fernando Mönckeberg Barros • George Robb (footballer) • Ingeborg Bachmann • Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah • Jean-Noël Tremblay • Johnny Berry • Magda Herzberger • Paul Soros • Robert Earl Hughes