Lizzie Borden by Jack Beeson Murder Mystery

It was a crime that shocked the nation. The trial was front-page news for months. Even after the verdict - especially after the verdict - debate over the trial's outcome was so intense that life-long friendships were shattered, and close-knit families were polarized. Many peole felt that justice had finally been done. Other observers were convinced that an outrageous misjustice had take place - that the accused had gotten away with a vicious and bloody double-murder.

But no, this week's opera is not about O.J. It is about the "trial of the century," but we're talking about the previous century. This opera takes us back a hundred years to the case of Lizzie Bordon, the woman who, alledgedly, "took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks." The Borden case is all the proof we'll ever need that the American public is easily captivated by a good, grisly murder case. Sure, we see murders reported on the front page of the paper, reconstructed in television movies and docu-dramas, analyzed on CNN and covered in minute detail on Court TV. Lizzie Borden's story has such great "legs" that people are still trying to solve it today. They're even soaking up the bloody "ambience" in Lizzie's "murder house," in Fall River, Massachusetts. The house is now a Bed and Breakfast, with a reservation list a half-mile long!

But would Lizzie's case get that kind attention if it had happened today? For instance, would it have wound up on Court TV? We wondered about that, so for this week's At the Opera, we asked Court TV anchor JUNE GRASSO - and she said yes! She also tells us how Court TV might have handled the case, and speculates on why bloody murder always gets such great ratings. Also on this week's show, we speak with the curator of the Fall River historical society - who's had his fill of Lizzie Borden. And we continue our discussion of American opera - asking why even a "modern" opera as accessible and sensational as Beeson's LIZZIE BORDEN can sometimes have trouble drumming up an audience.

All this and murder, on At the Opera, with Lou Santacroce.

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