As historic moments go, a rehearsal may be too small to merit even a footnote. But today, a company of opera singers arrived in Chapel Hill to begin work on the world premiere that will open a first-time summer festival.

"Strange Fruit," a new work by North Carolina native Chandler Carter and librettist Joan Ross Sorkin, will inaugurate the Long Leaf Opera Festival, running June 15 to July 1. It's the latest work to carry the title of Billie Holiday's signature song about lynching in the South.

It's a fitting choice for Long Leaf, a company with the uncommon mission of staging works written in English that emphasize American stories and reflect the country's diversity.

The metaphor behind "Strange Fruit" was first developed in a poem written in the early 20th century to describe lynchings in the South. It became something of a folk song until Holiday put her distinct vocal style on it in 1939. The song inspired a novel of the same name by Lillian E. Smith, published in 1944.

Carter, who grew up in the Johnston County community of Four Oaks, was drawn to the story.

"Being from Eastern North Carolina, I found the story immediately recognizable," he said in a phone interview last week. "I felt uniquely suited to compose that piece. It's a passion I continue to have about social justice and the American struggle with racism."

Carter, who graduated from UNC-CH in 1984 and moved to Boston, has taught at Hofstra University in New York since 1996. He has also written an opera based on the life of Nelson Mandela. Sorkin, a New York playwright and screenwriter who set out to write a libretto for "Strange Fruit" in 2000, asked him to come up with the music.

Their opera tells the story of a secret interracial relationship in Georgia in 1920 and adds yet a third meaning to the title. In the song it referred to a lynched body -- "Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root"; in the book, it denoted the love story. In the opera, the "strange fruit" is the couple's unborn baby, Carter said.

A portion of the unfinished work was presented in 2003 at the New York City Opera's annual VOX event, which showcases new American composers (and is going on this weekend). Long Leaf's music director was in the audience and thought it would be a good fit for the company. The board agreed.

"Part of our mission is to encourage diversity," said executive director James E. Schaeffer.

The company commissioned Carter to finish the piece, which he did in 2005. Long Leaf decided to use the premiere to highlight its new summer festival after finding out that Memorial Hall would be available in June.

About half the singers for "Strange Fruit" are local and the rest come from across the country. The lead role of Nonnie Anderson will be played by Erina Newkirk, a soprano with extensive experience in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Keeping costs down

The festival marks Long Leaf's first summer-only season -- its ninth in all. After staging productions at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, Long Leaf performed in Memorial for the first time last fall.

Schaeffer said the hall's non-union staff will help the small company keep expenses down. Long Leaf's $200,000 budget has remained in the black thanks to private donors. The number of people who saw its performances last year increased over the previous season by half, to 3,350 people, he said. He would like to draw 5,000 for the festival.

The festival also includes the children's opera "Nora the Nonapus," concerts and master classes. And there's another first for the company: the baton of Alfred Sturgis, director of the N.C. Master Chorale, principal conductor for Carolina Ballet and choral music director at N.C. State University.

Sturgis will conduct a pair of one-act operas, Sir William Walton's "The Bear" and the winner of a competition that Schaeffer said attracted 40 entries from six countries. The winner was a young Yale grad.

Schaeffer said he hated to notify the other competitors they hadn't won.

"When I sent letters of consolation, I said I wish we had more money to do more worthy works," Schaeffer said. "Large companies can't take chances on things that don't have a name."

Carter, who will hear "Strange Fruit" in its entirety for the first time at the festival, sees Long Leaf's willingness to try contemporary operas as an encouraging sign.

"A lot of companies don't view doing new works as trying to sneak a pill into the food," he said. "They look at it as pulling in people who might think opera is off-putting because it's in Italian or some other language."

Programs such as VOX promote works set in America with stories and characters that are familiar to American audiences.

"It's not what we have come to think of as opera," he said. "It's taken right off the pages of the news and is about something vitally important to us. It opens up opera to a new audience."

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.